Theory of Interpretation 1

Tutor:

Jaroslav ETLÍK

Synopsis:

Defining the concept of interpretation in theatre theory. Distinguishing the basic constitutive components of interpretational theatre from the essential components and codes of non-interpretational (authorial) theatre. Definition of theatre interpretation as an inter-semiotic transfer of meanings. The lecture cycle, i.e. diachronnic and synchronnic analysis of the interpretational question in the theatre system.

Teaching is conducted partly in the form of theoretical lectures and partly in the form of a seminar.

Prerequisites:

1. Perception

2. Capacity for analytic and synthetic thought

3. Capacity for associative creation, imagination and fantasy

4. Adequate knowledge of theatre theory

5. Broad overview and knowledge of theatre history, but also of general cultural history

Study Objectives:

1. To encourage students to think independently, forster in them the ability to analyse a dramatic text closely, to reveal a text?s smallest motivations and their hidden meanings, to name and assess them.

2. To offer students the sum of knowledge from subjects dealing with the theory of communication, semiotics and the theory of drama and to provide them with an experience of working with a text which allows them ultimately to work independently with a dramatic test and think about it in all its possibilities and dimensions.

3. To foster in students an awareness of the basic differences in literature?s system of signifiers and a theatre work?s system of signs.

4. To create in students a sensitivity to the language of a theatre work and its specific nature in the sense of an independent, entirely autonomous artistic type, which is ontologically entirely different from literature.

Outline and Syllabus:

Curriculum:

1. Familiarising students with the concept of interpretation in all its historical and contemporary meanings.

2. To distinguish the concept of interpretation in the sense of a commentary or explanation from another term of interpretation, i.e. a creative transfer from one system of signifiers to another.

3. To look at the specific rules of the literary system. Different means of expression and a different form of reception.

4. To point out the specific rules that apply to the theatre system and theatre language.

Richer range of means of expression, different system of signifiers and semiotics in general, different reception

5. Analysis of a literary dramatic text and attempts to explain its main themes in discursive thought.

6. Seeking various possibilities of stage concretisation based on explanation, i.e. understanding the original dramatic text.

7. Looking at the differences between the two basic forms of interpretation, i.e. between interpretations of a meta-sign and metacreative type. To proceed on the scale between both external poles.

Syllabus:

An interpretation theory covers complex structural relations between a literary dramatic text and theatre?s different semiotic communication system. The subject of study is on one hand commentary, i.e. the detailed analysis of a dramatic text?s levels of meaning and its overall understanding in the form of discursive articulation, on the other hand the possibilities (or search for possibilities) of interpreting the text?s meaning through different symbols in an audio-visual structure of the theatre work. In the lecture cycle the concept of interpretation is conceived in the whole breadth of its meaning, or in accordance with how it is understood in current Czech drama theory, from a so-called pious, meta-sign Interpretation to a very free, associative, so-called metacreative interpretation.

Study materials:

Jean Claude Carriére : Vyprávět příběh

Jan Grossman : Výklad jednoho textu

Jan Císař : Proměny divadelního jazyka

Josef Kovalčuk : Autorské divadlo sedmdesátých a osmdesátých let

Zdeněk Hořínek : Interpretace a výklad

Umberto Eco : Interpretácia a nadinterpretácia

Umberto Eco : Meze interpratace

Wolf Schmid : Proměny narativu

Gerard Genette : Hranice vyprávění

Note:

Schedule for winter semester 2008/2009:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon	místnost R601 Pracovna pedagogů () ETLÍK J. 14:30–16:00 (paralelka 1)
Tue
Fri
Thu
Fri

Schedule for summer semester 2008/2009:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Doporučený bakalářský režie a dramaturgie ALD (subject determining qualification)
• Doporučený bakalářský scénografie ALD (compulsory subject)
• Doporučený magisterský produkce (optional subject)