Stubborn Subject: the Persistence of Self in Dramatic Acting
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Stubborn Subject: The Persistence of Self in Dramatic Acting by Martin Julien A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Martin Julien 2019 Stubborn Subject: The Persistence of Self in Dramatic Acting Martin Julien Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies University of Toronto 2019 Abstract Dramatic acting, as a theatrical event that mysteriously fuses actor with character, is also a process that is deeply invested in the idea of Self. From Diderot’s early paradox through Stanislavski’s highly influential psychotechnique and into the present day, notions of who actors are – and how they precisely feel – when portraying characters have remained at the centre of Euroamerican discussions about dramatic performance. Conversely, for most of the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, the concept of the Self as an organic, reflexive, self-directed and differentiated human being in the world has been not only “deconstructed” within every dominant critical and artistic discourse but has also – until recently – been pretty much left for dead. Yet within the realm of acting in the traditional theatre’s models, the tenacity of the Self’s hold as the centrepiece of both pedagogy and methodology appears to be the hallmark of a concept that, if somewhat bruised and battered, is still very much alive. Is there something inherent – or at least necessary – within the study and practice of dramatic acting that perpetually reconstitutes the stubborn idea of an autonomous and cohesive subjectivity within the actor? Through a freewheeling, and sometimes unorthodox, methodology of ii interrogation, this dissertation asserts that, for the modern dramatic actor, a demonstrable sense of self is an inescapable vocational reality. This position is argumentatively framed through a valorization of the actor’s phenomenological and psychological experience as fundamental to assessing how the Actor and the Self creatively collide. Though drawing from a broad range of interdisciplinary discourses, the author’s subjective and self-historicizing experience as someone who has worked as a professional actor in the Canadian theatre and other media since childhood, for over forty years, is everywhere implicit in this analysis. iii To Heather Nicol, for everything iv Acknowledgments A large debt of gratitude and a huge wave of appreciation go out to my doctoral supervisor Professor Stephen Johnson, whose good humour and strong guidance unfailingly supported me through what has been a wild ride of twists and turns. I also extend my deepest thanks to committee members Dr. Nancy Copeland and Dr. Tamara Trojanowska who have provided me with so much insight, clarity, and encouragement. Thanks to all the other instructors and mentors I have had the privilege to study under at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies: Dr. John Astington, Dr. Bruce Barton, Dr. Antje Budde, and Dr. Nikki Cesare-Schotzko. Also, from the English and Cinema Studies departments, respectively, Dr. Julian Patrick and Dr. Brian Price. A large thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for awarding me a Doctoral Fellowship for 2015-2017. A personal thanks to my referees Dr. Stephen Johnson and Dr. Bruce Barton, and most especially to Dr. Jane Freeman from the School of Graduate Studies’ Graduate Centre for Academic Communication. I am particularly grateful for the assistance of Emma Johnson in editing and formatting this final document. Assistance provided by the staff at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies over the length of my program of study has been of such value: thank you to Rebecca Biason, Samiha Chowdhury, Tasleem Hudani, Luella Massey, Suzanne Micaleff. Robert Moses, and Colleen Osborn. To my friends Louis Dionne, Peter Freeman, Dr. Maura McIntyre, Barbara Milroy, and my wife Heather Nicol, I owe my deepest gratitude for their necessary personal support at a crucial juncture in my research and writing. Special thanks to Mr. Dionne and Ms. Milroy, both psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists, for offering such helpful feedback on my writing about Lacan, Kohut, Winnicott, and psychological mirror theory. I wish to acknowledge the support of international scholars who have given me much-needed encouragement, through conferences and communication, in my years as a doctoral student: Dr. David Fancy (Brock University), Dr. Paul Fryer (Rose Bruford College), Professor Kelly Handerek (University of Regina), Dr. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe (University of Lincoln), Dr. Daniel Mroz (University of Ottawa), Dr. Jonathan Pitches (University of Leeds), and Professor Harry Youtt (UCLA). Finally, I would like to offer my special thanks to Dr. Iris MacGregor Bannerman and Dr. Mark Ceolin (Ryerson University), Dr. Karen Stanworth (York University), Brian Quirt, Shery Leeder, Iris Turcott and Peter Hinton, without whose early support I would never have ventured upon an academic career. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments............................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 lingua franca ................................................................................................................................1 ‘Lab’ versus ‘Biz’: This Is Not a Test .........................................................................................3 Phenomenology and Psychology: Is This Realistic? ..................................................................4 Drama, Theatre and Performance ...............................................................................................5 The Philosophical Divide ..........................................................................................................11 Analyzing Continentalism .........................................................................................................12 Drama’s ‘Late’ Modernism .......................................................................................................15 Chapter 1 The Ontological Problem of Acting ..............................................................................19 What Is It Like To Be Another Person? ....................................................................................19 Self and Sensibility ...................................................................................................................25 You Hypocrite!..........................................................................................................................45 The Qualia Of “Moi-Aussi’ Are Not Strained ..........................................................................48 All By Myself ............................................................................................................................49 I Am What I Am, And That’s All That I Am ...........................................................................54 The Actor’s Triple Self .............................................................................................................62 Chapter 2 Mirror, Mirror: Lacan’s ‘Mirror Stage’ and the Actor ..................................................66 The Specular Theory .................................................................................................................66 Mind, Mirror, and Metaphor .....................................................................................................76 Mind Body: Mirror Being .........................................................................................................83 Chapter 3 The Epistemological Possibilities of Character ............................................................88 Do You Know Bill Sikes? .........................................................................................................88 And The Last Shall Be First ......................................................................................................93 vi Figuring Out Character ...........................................................................................................107 Chapter 4 Transformation and Mirror Theory: The Actor Prepares ............................................112 Transforming Transference .....................................................................................................112 INTERLUDE: A Word or Two on Magic .......................................................................116 Stan’s Laurels and All Over Heart-‘Be’..................................................................................120 Inside the Looking Glass: Outside the Self .............................................................................130 The “I”s are the Mirrors of the Soul........................................................................................132 Stanislavski, the Mirror, and Me .............................................................................................138 Is Michael Chekhov’s Gesture a Psychological Trap .............................................................147 Chapter 5 Transference,