A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Theories of Spectator- Character and Actor-Character Identification in the Theatre

A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Theories of Spectator- Character and Actor-Character Identification in the Theatre Submitted by Maria Grazia Turri, to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Drama, May 2015 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. 1 2 A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Theories of Spectator- Character and Actor-Character Identification in the Theatre From Aristotle’s theory of tragic katharsis to Brecht’s formulation of the Verfremdungseffekt, theorists of the theatre have long engaged with the question of what spectatorship entails. Such question has, directly or indirectly, extended to the investigation of acting. In the wake of Brecht’s critique of conventional theatre, emphasis has been put on the study of spectatorship from the point of view of its cultural determinants and its conscious cognitive aspects, while unconscious processes have been mostly ignored. In this thesis I take a psychoanalytic perspective to analyse theories of the theatre that have investigated the process of identification of the spectator or the actor with the character. According to psychoanalysis, mechanisms of unconscious identification, such as projection and introjection, are fundamental to psychic development and to the construction of the self. By analysing Aristotle’s theory of tragic katharsis through Freud’s theory of transference, I propose a new understanding of spectatorship as transference dynamic. I then conduct an in-depth enquiry into eighteenth-century theories of acting which lead up to Diderot’s Paradoxe sur le comédien. I investigate the paradox of the actor, in its fruitful tension between sensibility and understanding, from the perspective of Melanie Klein’s concept of unconscious phantasy and Bion’s theory of alpha-function. I hence interpret the art of the actor as the performing of alpha-function on the spectator’s unconscious emotions. The new insights afforded by a psychoanalytic perspective of spectating and acting illuminate the moral function of theatre and resolve some of the controversial points brought forward by various theorists, including Brecht and Rousseau. The moral function of theatre can be construed as a transpersonal process in which unconscious identifications between spectator and actor promote the development of a reflective view of the self. 3 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 9 CHAPTER 1. THEORIZING THEATRE SPECTATORSHIP 13 SETTING THE QUESTION 13 STARTING WITH BRECHT 17 The epic theatre 20 The status of emotions 24 Brechtian katharsis and the unconscious 26 OTHER MODELS OF SPECTATORSHIP 27 Theatre spectatorship as cultural phenomenon 28 Theatre spectatorship from a semiotic perspective 30 Theatre spectatorship from the perspective of cognitive science 34 SPECTATORSHIP AND PSYCHOANALYSIS 38 The significance of the unconscious to mental life 38 Psychoanalysis in context 41 A psychoanalytic perspective of theatre spectatorship 44 CHAPTER 2. TRANSFERENCE AND KATHARSIS, FREUD TO ARISTOTLE 48 INTRODUCTION 48 ARISTOTLE’S THEORY OF MIMĒSIS AND TRAGIC KATHARSIS 49 Tragic katharsis: purgation or purification? 49 The meaning of mimēsis 51 Pity and fear 58 FREUD’S THEORIES OF THE CATHARTIC METHOD AND THE TRANSFERENCE 59 The cathartic method 59 The discovery of transference 62 Transference re-enactment and transference analysis 64 Repetition-compulsion – beyond the pleasure principle 67 5 AN INTERPRETATION OF TRAGIC KATHARSIS AS TRANSFERENCE DYNAMIC 69 A comparison between tragic katharsis and transference 70 Tragic katharsis as transference dynamic 74 CHAPTER 3. THE ART OF THE ACTOR IN DIDEROT’S PARADOXE AND ITS EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY REFERENCES 77 INTRODUCTION 77 The eighteenth century, an age of reflections about acting 78 FROM SAINTE-ALBINE, THROUGH JOHN HILL, TO STICOTTI- GENETIC AND TRANS-EUROPEAN LINKS 81 Le Comédien 85 The Actor 92 Garrick ou les Acteurs Anglois 99 THE RICCOBONI, LUIGI AND FRANÇOIS, FATHER AND SON 103 Luigi Riccoboni’s writings on the art of the actor 110 L’Art du Théâtre by François Riccoboni 115 DIDEROT’S THEORY OF ACTING- A TRAJECTORY 118 Diderot’s earlier theories 118 Diderot and Goldoni 123 The Paradoxe sur le comédien 127 CHAPTER 4. THE PARADOX ANALYSED 138 INTRODUCTION 138 DUAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ACTING 139 William Archer – the paradox put to the test 139 The paradox of the spectator in the eighteenth century 142 The actor’s double feeling 144 THE CONFLUENCE OF FEELING AND UNDERSTANDING IN THE ACTOR’S ART 148 Diderot’s investigation on acting as trajectory 149 The actor’s art and the question of nature 152 THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHICAL AND CULTURAL DEBATE 155 Nature 155 Sensism, sensibilité and esprit 159 6 THE DEBATE ON THE ART OF THE ACTOR IN LIGHT OF THE EIGHTEENTH- CENTURY PHILOSOPHICAL AND CULTURAL DEBATE 163 CHAPTER 5. THE ART OF THE ACTOR AS ALPHA-FUNCTION 165 FREUD’S THEORY OF EGO FUNCTIONING 165 The transition from the topographical to the structural model 165 of the mind From the psychology of impulse to the psychology of the 168 ego The relationship between the ego, the id, and reality 170 Identification through introjection and projection 171 KLEINIAN THEORY OF OBJECT-RELATIONS 178 Historical introduction 178 Unconscious phantasy 180 Projection and introjection 182 Ego-splitting and integration 185 The birth of the self 187 BION’S THEORY OF ALPHA-FUNCTION 189 Projective identification 190 Alpha-function 192 The double nature of alpha-function 196 When alpha-function goes wrong 199 AN INTERPRETATION OF THE ART OF THE ACTOR AS ALPHA-FUNCTION 203 The relationship between sensibility and understanding 204 Transpersonal alpha-function and the spectator’s experience 206 Alpha-function and the actor’s double game 207 Disruptions of alpha-function in the art of the actor 208 Brecht’s theory of the actor in relation to alpha-function 211 Spectatorship- envy or gratitude? 213 The fourth wall 215 Spectatorship- passive submission or active engagement? 216 Alpha-function and the study of human nature 217 7 CHAPTER 6. SPECTATORSHIP AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT 219 THEATRE AND ITS MORAL FUNCTION 219 Theatre, pleasure, and moral instruction 221 Theatre and emotions 225 UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES OF ACTING AND SPECTATING 227 Emotional processing in alpha-function 227 The severing of transpersonal alpha-function 229 The depressed actor and the manic position 231 The envious spectator 233 The person of the actor 236 SPECTATORSHIP AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT 238 The actor’s interpretation and her moral values 238 Alpha-function and moral development 241 Empathy and sympathy 243 EPILOGUE 245 Reason and emotions 246 Spectatorship and pleasure 247 The actor and the moral function of theatre 247 The transpersonal dimension of spectatorship 248 Identification and identity 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY 252 8 PREFACE The research presented in this thesis was carried out first at the Department of Theatre and Drama at Royal Holloway (University of London) and since 2013 at the Drama Department at the University of Exeter, where I transferred following my supervisor’s change of post. The project was born from my desire to understand the nature of the pleasure I felt when labouring as actress, or spectator, or indeed when I witnessed the pleasure of the children to whom I taught drama. While working as psychiatrist and training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, I gained the impression that a similar pleasure was sometimes afforded in sessions with patients. My previous studies at the ‘Dipartimento di Musica e Spettacolo’ (DAMS) of the University of Bologna, providing me with the background knowledge in theatre history and theories of the theatre, allowed me to formulate a preliminary proposal to frame the project. From there, the research grew into the exploration of theories of the theatre in different historical periods, affording exciting opportunities for in-depth samplings of theatre history. The application of psychoanalytic theory has grown organically with the research; not only has psychoanalysis been an opportunity for reading theories of the theatre afresh, but conversely, theories of the theatre have been the occasion to look at established psychoanalytic concepts in detail, so to extend their relevance to the understanding of theatre. Although my research has remained within the scope of theory, my practice as actress and as psychoanalytic psychotherapist has had an important bearing on its development. In the text I have used some examples from my practice as psychotherapist to illustrate certain psychoanalytic concepts. I have given some consideration to the question of how to use gender pronouns when writing in general terms, so as to avoid using the masculine as the universal gender. Any convention has got its limitations; my choice has been partly practical in terms of helping the reader to navigate the text more easily. I have used the feminine for the actor and for the analyst, and the masculine for the spectator and for the patient, and this convention mirrors the use of the 9 feminine for the mother and the masculine for the baby, when I am talking about the mother-baby relationship. Quotations or specific examples necessarily, and happily, escape from this system. As I will have the occasion to discuss in Chapter 1, my use of pronouns wishes to counterpoise the gender stereotyping that, through a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective, assigns to the gaze of the spectator the masculine dominant status, in relation to the actor’s femninine position of subordination. In opposition to this, and within the Kleinian framework of the mother-baby relationship, I allude to the ‘she’ actor as the bearer of the wise maternal function which sustains the emotional development of the fragile psyche of the ‘he’ spectator.

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