The Cognitive Semiotics of Poetry and Dance: Emotive Embodiment Of

THE COGNITIVE SEMIOTICS OF POETRY AND DANCE: EMOTIVE EMBODIMENT OF ECSTATIC SENSORIAL COGNITION IN MODERN REPRESENTATIONS by YARDENA DAON Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts Department of Cognitive Science CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May, 2010 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of YARDENA DAON candidate for the Master of Arts degree *. Per Aage Bradnt (chair of the committee) Ron Wilson Florin Berindeanu (date of thesis defense) March 24, 2010 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. Dedicated to my family For their Inspiration, motivation, support And everlasting love 1 Table of contents Acknowledgements 6 Abstract 7 1. Introduction 8 2.1. The structure of the song: questions and repetition 10 2.2. Echad Mi Yodea through semiotic references 13 3. A cognitive analysis of the poem Echad Mi Yodea 21 3.1. The uniqueness of the first answer 22 3.2. The use of Aramaic 23 3.3. Let the meaning define the poem 26 4. „Minus 17‟ (Batsheva Dance Company: DECA Dance) 29 4.1. „Minus 17‟: choreography and personal interpretation 31 4.2. „Minus 17‟: elements of the live performance 40 4.2.1. The Incantation Structure 42 4.2.2. Intense Intentionality 48 5. Overview: the cognitive essence of poetry and dance 53 5.1. The manner of performance of the poem 54 5.2. Sound patterns and their expressiveness: emotive and ecstatic states 60 5.3. Emotive sensorial cognition 67 6. Conclusion 71 Appendix 74 References 75 Bibliography 77 2 List of figures Figure 1: A metonymic semiotic blend 18 Figure 2: Incantation Structure 43 Figure 3: Contraction of Linked Categories Creating the Intense Intentionality 49 Figure 4: The tempo (pitch pattern) of a stanza 59 Figure 5: Progression of emotive levels 63 Figure 6: Ma’alot: the outburst of emotive forces 65 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to gratefully acknowledge the support and assistance of all those without whose advice and help the development of this thesis would not have been possible. First, I would like to express my profound thanks to my advisor and mentor, Professor Per Aage Brandt of the Department of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University for his invaluable advice and guidance throughout the development of this thesis. I owe my deepest gratitude to Professor Florin Berindeanu of the Classics Department at Case Western Reserve University for his spirit of adventure in regard to research and scholarship and endless fruitful discussions. I am heartily thankful to Professor Ron Wilson, Chair of the Department of Theater and Dance and Karen Potter, Director of the Dance Program at Case Western Reserve University for permitting the inclusion of dance in my multidisciplinary graduate program. I owe heartfelt thanks to Kelli Sanford of the Dance Program at Case Western Reserve University for inspiring my inner creativity. I would also like to thank Sheila Pedigo and Gary Pillar of Case Western Reserve University for being instrumental in the funding of grants which helped me pursue my research ambitions. Last but not least, I am most honored to extend my humble appreciation to Professor Emeritus Reuven Tsur of Tel Aviv University for his time and effort dedicated to helping me develop and research this thesis. His encouraging, frequent and ongoing communication created the energy that shaped this thesis. 4 The Cognitive Semiotics of Poetry and Dance: Emotive Embodiment of Ecstatic Sensorial Cognition in Modern Representations ABSTRACT By YARDENA DAON This thesis studies cognitive semiotics of poetry and dance by examining emotive embodiment of ecstatic sensorial cognition in modern representations. The research investigates the existence, cause and process of „bursting emotions‟ leading to an ecstatic sensorial emotive state, through the singing and dancing elements of the choreography „Minus 17‟ of the Hebrew liturgical poem Echad Mi Yodea performed by Batsheva Dance Company. The writer attended a rehearsal and performance of „Minus 17,‟ and conducted personal discussions with the Company. For the advancement of this research the writer participated in an individual workshop with the founder of Cognitive Poetics, Professor Reuven Tsur in Jerusalem, Israel. The thesis concludes that both song and dance create an emotive sensorial cognitive level, a form of energy, which generates a wild though controlled sense of pleasure, ending the performance, for both the performers and audience, in the most ecstatic state of emotion. 5 1. Introduction The cognitive and semiotic manifestation of poetry and dance arouses ecstatic sensorial qualities that create emotive patterns resulting from cognitive affinity between rational and irrational emotions. My interest is in the cognitive semiotics of poetry and dance, so I selected for my research the traditional liturgical poem Echad Mi Yodea (Hebrew for Who Knows One), which is sung towards the end of the reading of the Haggadah1 during the Passover Seder2 by all family members, and has also been performed under the title “Minus 17” by the Batsheva Dance Company. Echad Mi Yodea is one of the latest poems to have been added to the Haggadah (it was first printed in the Prague Haggadah of 1527), the common belief being that the poem„s earliest known version was inscribed on a leaf of parchment in 1406 (poet unknown) that was discovered in Germany, and subsequently called the Western version of the poem. Bar-Ilan University‟s Shimon Sharvit (2000) mentions the scholar and researcher Daniel Goldschmidt who included in his 1938 Berlin Haggadah (in German) references confirming that the poem Echad Mi Yodea was one of many wedding songs of early Cochin Jewry (today‟s Kochi, located on the southwest coast of India), with variations as compared to 16th century and later Western versions of the poem. Sharvit points to this and other Eastern versions of the poem, and states: 1 Haggadah - a “Telling.” A Jewish religious text that sets the order (Hebrew: Seder) of the Passover ritual. It is a celebration of history – the past and the future, and a prayer for freedom. (Scherman and Zlotowitz, 2008) 2 Passover Seder (Hebrew for order) – the order of the ritual of the Passover celebration as specified in the Haggadah; includes readings, prayers and singing from the Haggadah, and eating and drinking of specific foods and wine. (Ariel, 1978:248-253 personal translation from Hebrew) 6 “… In 1971 I found two separate parchments inscribed with the poem in two different locations within the Cairo Genizah3 archives at the University Library in Cambridge, also with variations as compared to today‟s accepted version, however, having commonalities with the Cochin version. There is no doubt in my mind that the Eastern version is independent of, and earlier than the Western version. Furthermore, it seems to me that the poem did not originate in Europe, nor was it originally written for the Haggadah.” (Sharvit, 2000 personal translation from Hebrew) I will examine the liturgical poem Echad Mi Yodea through poetic and structural analysis of its literal and symbolic representation, the anthropological symbols in the poem, and the rhetoric structure and connection between the insights of the poem and the different symbolic representations. Visual representation will be examined using Batsheva Dance Company‟s choreography for the song Echad Mi Yodea, “Minus 17.” I will analyze the poetic elements, the relationship between the words, the meaning and the gestures within the dance, and the symbolic elements of both choreography and poetry. During the writing of this thesis, I have had the honor of participating in a one on one workshop with professor Reuven Tsur, who is considered the founding father of Cognitive Poetics. The last chapter of this thesis is based on the knowledge and 3 Genizah (Hebrew for ‘hiding place’) is a depository for sacred Hebrew books that are no longer usable, and which cannot be thrown out because they contain God's name. The Cairo Genizah is located in the Ezra Synagogue in Fostat (Old Cairo, Egypt), built in 882 AD. The discovery of the documents in the Cairo Genizah (in the 18th and 19th centuries) has been likened to the 20th century discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls; no other library in the world possessed such an array of religious and private documents from the 10th to 13th centuries. The genizah revealed a wealth of information from this period, an era previously not well-known in Jewish history. Many genizah documents have become a unique historical source for the Middle East, providing important information for Muslim and Christian scholars in addition to Jewish ones. Today, a large portion of the Cairo Genizah's documents are available at the University Library in Cambridge, where documents are under glass, bound in albums or placed loosely in boxes. Smaller collections are spread out across the world, in libraries in London, Oxford, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Leningrad and Philadelphia. (Oreck, 2010) 7 understanding of poetry from a pure cognitive perspective influenced by Tsur and his methodology. 2.1. The structure of the song: questions and repetition Echad Mi Yodea is an ordinal/reverse-numerical cumulative poem from number one to thirteen. Each verse starts with a number (1-13), and then the previous numbers/verses are repeated in reverse order (a pyramid structure). The poem is structured as a “call and response”; each verse/stanza opens with a “call” - the question “who knows „x‟?” („x‟ represents the numbers), which is repeated from 1 to 13, each time followed by the “response” (answer) “I know „x‟! ...” and includes an explanation of that specific number. The song goes through this question and answer sequence for a total of 13 times, each verse repeating the answers given for all previous numbers in a reversed order, but not repeating the previous questions.

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