The Imagined Voice 2017 JULY
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Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/58691 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Kyriakides, Y. Title: Imagined Voices : a poetics of Music-Text-Film Issue Date: 2017-12-21 PART I: Three Voices 16 Chapter 1: The Mimetic Voice One of the bedrocks of the history of aesthetics in western culture is Plato's formulation of 'mimesis' and 'diegesis'. In a dialogue between Socrates and Adeimantus in Book 3 of The Republic, Plato sets out to differentiate all forms of poetry in 'mimesis' and 'diegesis', which roughly translate respectively into 'showing' and 'telling': One kind of poetry and story-telling employs only imitation - tragedy and comedy, as you say. Another kind employs only narration by the poet himself - you find this most of all in Dithyrambs. A third kind uses both - as in epic poetry... (Plato, The Republic, 394c) Here Plato sets out the basic duality between narration and imitation. In diegesis the poet or narrator is speaking in their own voice, never leading the audience into thinking they are anyone other than that. In mimesis, the poet utilises imitation, and takes on the persona of another, by voice or gesture to show, to act out, as is the convention of much staged drama. In later chapters of The Republic, Plato expresses his prejudice against mimetic art, which he considers inferior, because in his view it simply copies the appearance of the real, reproducing shadows rather than shedding light on truths. This is somewhat ironic, because Plato himself utilises the form of the dramatic dialogue in much of his writing, using the voice of Socrates as a medium to channel his ideas. (Farness 1991: 23) These Platonic definitions of narrative are clear-cut and to some extent polarising in their categorisation, especially when much poetry (defined by Plato as everything from comic drama to lyric poetry) can embody varying degrees of these functions, let alone when we discuss more contemporary art forms. It is useful, therefore, to consider that art embodies varying degrees of both mimesis and diegesis, and that their functions are deeply entangled. In this chapter I would like to appropriate the word 'mimesis' as a way of describing the process by which the voice is engaged in listening and reading music-text-film. I will begin by giving an overview of the concepts associated with classic 'mimesis' and how it informs our understanding of what art is. In the twentieth century, 'mimesis' has been associated with ideas of the 'simulacrum' and the 'hyperreal', reflected in the immersive experience of interactive art or art practices, which call for a high degree of engagement from the listener. In this sense, 'mimesis' is not only exclusive to something enacted by a performer on stage, as was intended by Plato's original use of the word, but is used to describe the process whereby the artwork is transferred to the body and mind of the spectator. I explore how instead of the artwork being a mirror of reality, (one's subjective) reality becomes a mirror of the 17 artwork. As Plato asks: "Or do you think that someone can consort with things he admires without imitating them? I do not. It's impossible" (Plato, The Republic, 500c). In the section 'Cognitive Immersion', I highlight the apparent contradictions in the experience of the music-text-film, namely of being absorbed or immersed in the musical reading of the text, while at the same time having the critical distance to generate meaning about the interaction of words and music.11 The inner voice of the audience is participating in the silent reading while at the same time remaining at a distance, making sense of the narrative that is being generated between words and music. The last three subsections of this chapter deal with what I perceive to be three distinct inner voices generated by music-text-film. Firstly, I borrow ideas from music theorist Arnie Cox's essay "The Mimetic Hypothesis" (2001), to highlight how our voices are activated when listening to music, how the voice follows the contours of melody and gesture in the music we are listening to or recalling from memory, in a form of 'silent singing'. Secondly, I deal with the widely discussed phenomenon of 'silent reading', which sometimes entails a complex interchange and modulation of voices, moving from the image we have of our own voices to that of the imagined author or characters in the text. Lastly, the third and more elusive inner voice is the voice of thought; the often dialogic interactions taking place under the hood of our brains, between different mental processes, between different aspects of the self. 1.1 Art Imitates Plato's original conception of the term 'mimesis' underpins his view, that most art concerns itself with the imitation of nature and reality. The word appears in Chapters II and III of the Republic in a general discussion about poetics and education, as he tries to show how it can undermine the state's ideals of truth and justice. According to Plato, the mimetic aspects of art are considered inferior because they merely imitate reality and truth. Although Plato advocates the use of certain stories to educate the young, he reflects an idea cherished by many a totalitarian regime, suggesting the censoring of narratives depicting depraved, violent, sexual or politically sensitive material. Furthermore, his notion of certain kinds of mimetic art as useful comes close to a concept of propaganda: art at the service of political utility. 11 This dichotomy is broadly reflected in the polarity of mimesis and diegesis, as the former is usually associated with immersion and the later with critical distance. 18 Figure 2 Plato's Allegory of the Cave by Jan Saenredam, according to Cornelis van Haarlem, 1604, Albertina, Vienna. According to Socrates, 'mimetic narrators' are not be trusted, as they undertake an act of concealment which they use to create the basis for further deception, so that the persona they impersonate is fragmented into a manifold. Beyond the conception of mimesis through political ideology, in book X Plato sets out his infamous metaphors on illusion versus the real in the allegory of the cave, where the dangers of taking merely shadows as the representation of reality are indicated. In this allegory, Socrates portrays consciousness through the image of a group of people chained to the wall of a cave. They watch shadows of things happening outside projected on the wall of the cave, mistaking this for reality. Only the philosopher, free from the prison of the cave, has the insight to see the world beyond the shadows on the wall, and perceive true reality. In another metaphor, mimesis is a mirror, inadequately reflecting what already exists in the world, and so failing to offer anything in terms of essence on its own: of turning a mirror round and round –you would soon enough make the sun and the heavens, and the earth and yourself, and other animals and plants, and all the, other things of which we were just now speaking, in the mirror. (Plato, The Republic, 596e) 19 In the allegory of the couch, Plato goes on further to suggest, that since art imitates appearances it is twice removed from the real; removed from the world of pure idea and also that of form. Plato argues that the 'mimetic' artist should be banished from the state. He seems to consider art only through his political lens, since controlling images and words is at the heart of political power. Philosopher Giorgio Agamben, in Man without Content, turns this idea into an interesting suggestion, arguing that the fact that the artist has no place in the ideal state stems from Plato's fundamental understanding of the power of art, rather than his misinterpretation of it (Agamben 1994: 4). René Girard, who in his anthropological philosophy redefines the 'mimetic' as a basic mechanism by means of which desires are borrowed from others, also writes of Plato's recognition of the importance of mimesis, together with his hostility towards it: If Plato is unique in the history of philosophy because of his fear of mimesis… he is also deceived by mimesis because he cannot succeed in understanding his fear, he never uncovers its empirical reason for being. (Girard 1978: 15) Plato's identification of poetry with the concept of imitation, secondary knowledge, femininity, emotional depravity and suchlike terms, has its roots in the patriarchal tendencies of his society, which was just beginning to move away from traditional oral culture, as manifested by Homer, to the burgeoning technology of the written word. This itself reflects an interesting cultural shift from the power of the voice in oral tradition to the power of written text. In the Poetics, Aristotle addresses the issues brought up by Plato and the problem of the too-politicised interpretation of the arts. He veers towards the side of poets, stating: These representations or imitations are communicated in language which may be through terms in current usage or include foreign words and metaphors: these and many modifications of language we allow to the poets. In addition, the same standard of correctness is not required of the poet as of the politician or indeed of poetry as of any other art. (Aristotle in Whalley 1997: 154) Whilst critiquing some aspects of Plato's theory, Aristotle holds onto some fundamental definitions from the Republic, namely that art is essentially imitative. Where he does venture further than Plato is to assert that art, by not simply being a mirror, a copy of reality, can be said to embody its own rules and conventions.