Acting Hysteria: an Analysis of the Actress and Her Part
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 1992 Acting Hysteria: An Analysis of the Actress and Her Part Lydia Stryk The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4291 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Contact UMI directly to order. I \ II Order Number 9218270 Actiiig hysteria: An analysis of thi* actress and her part Stryk, Lydia, Ph.D. ('ity University of New York, 1002 (’ojiyright (01992 liy Stryk. Lydin. All rights reserved. UMI M f N / rt h IM Arm A rlh >i, Ml IN 11 ACTING HYSTERIA: An Analysis of the Actress and Her Part by Lydia Stryk A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 1992 (£) 1992 LYDIA STRYK All Rights Reserved i i Till fi manuscript har been lead ami ,-r ■■epteri f • i r he Piuiluul Faculty in Theatre m ;at istdr't r.ii < > t 1 he d i s r - i t ti! inn i eq u i l enient f m the d e q i e e r. t rn 1 c t . > i r>t P 11 i 1 > m n p h y . [Signature] hi r cn ih i' r , 1')') ! ha! •• '■’hail of Fxuminimj rvmmiMta- Pi .'t . Ma i v i n 1 'a i 1 m >n [Signature] [Je i' cintu1 I U . I 4 ‘ I I hat. e F xe c u t Ivp n F f "TFeT Pi nf . Matvin rarln m [Signature] Pi < ■ t . St an 1 y . Kauf f mailn [Signature] PioT. Mamy Ann raws Sup* i vis/i y r.'inmiMee T h e I'lty II];!VelClty nf flew Y''! k 1 1 I Abstract ACTING HYSTERIA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ACTRESS AND HER PART by Lydia Stryk Adviser: Prof. Marvin Carlson This dissertation examines the woman's part in dramatic representation as a hysterical construct and explores the hystericizing effect that the playing of this construct has on the actress. Drawing on feminist psychoanalytic analyses of male psychology and on the historical origins of male-invented female hysteria, this study uses dramatic representation as a model and metaphor for woman's hystericization in Western culture. Charcot's theatricalization of female hysteria through public performances of hysterical acts and the Ophelia as psychological/aesthetic model in British mental asylums are investigated as metaphorical sources for a new definition of female hysteria as a disease of performance, of acting. Case studies of Eleonora Duse, Vivien Leigh and Liv Ullmann are presented as vivid examples of the effects of hysterical parts on the actresses who play them. Feminist strategies are offered for the actress (the woman) in an attempt to explore how one recognizes the hysterical construct at work (at play), and the ideas of feminist theorists such as Luce i v Irigaray, Helene Cixous and El in Diamond are explored as tools to help the actress-woman question and subvert the oppressive, saddening effects of the hysterical part. Michel Foucault's investigation of sadness and Bertholt Brecht's estranging techniques serve as sources of recognition and strategy for the feminist approach to acting hysteria. Finally, case studies of several hysterical dramatic roles, categorized as 1) pure victims, 2) hysterical sinds, 3) modern, analyzed hysterics, 4 ) actresses, are offered as examples of feminist strategic analysis. v Preface This study examines the nature of the female part in plays written by men and the effect this part has on the actress and her "acting" of the part. The part consigned to women, I believe, in so much of Western dramatic literature, is a male construct of woman, namely, the hysteric. The accepting and playing of this hysterical part induces this constructed state in the actress. My interest in this problem is the result of my own experiences as a professionally trained actress. Thus my reading of the texts is circumscribed by my emotional, psychological and physical response to the woman's part. My training in the Method, auditioning--with its dieting and grooming, analyzing and learning roles, rehearsing, perform ing, watching and knowing other actresses— what is said and written of them, are behind my concern for the actress as wo man and performer. This perspective led me right to feminist psychoanalytic theory which, for me, vividly assists my focus on the actress, existentially, creatively and politically. I agree with Rosi Braidotti that a post-modern perspec tive with its disintegration of the subject only subverts the work that must be done to reveal the nature of woman's suppression in the text and on the stage. Braidotti explains: vi The truth of the utter is: one cannot deconstruct a subjectivity one has never been fully granted; one cannot diffuse a sexuality which has been defined as dark and Mysterious. In order to announce the death of the subject one must first have gained the right to speak as one . The fragmentation of the self being woman's basic historical condition . women have been postmodern since the beginning of time. In thinking about the actress— whv what's there for her to play is there, what it is that is there and is not there, I am limiting my study in a way that is unnatural to the theatre. I want to keep away from the audience, and there fore, phenomenology, and from the director, who bridges stage and house. However, in doing so, I am building an artificial dike, one which will occasionally, unavoidably, allow the presence of the audience to spill over. Feminist psychoanalytic theory offers the most compelling insights for my purposes, because, on every level, theatre is the playing field of the psyche— under all that culture, language and aesthetics. Madelon Gohlke points to the source of feminist psychoanalytic investigation in her discussion of culture: As a culture we cling to the language of presence and absence, language and silence, reason and madness to describe the relations between the terms masculine and feminine. one might ask [about] the spectrum of psychic needs served by specific conven tions and genres.2 I have choaen the t e n actress to separate her from her nale counterpart who does not concern Be in this study. Although, as Marianne Novy has noted, actors as a sale/female group are a lot like woaen in their role and status in society. She describes an "anti-theatrical prejudice" which leads to suspicion of both actor and voian: Both are traditionally expected to survive by pleasing others and are therefore depend ent on others .... This necessity to please leadB to Buch of the role-playing of which women are accused.3 If this adaptability is threatening to society, so, too, are the emotions expressed by both actors and women: Novy sees "the ability of the actor— or the woman--to express emotions felt briefly or not at all" as a source of unease, something threatening to non-actors, non-women.4 This connection between women arid acting is at the center of this thesis, but I will be primarily concerned with the specific double-bind of the actress, whose situation I hope to present as unique because the roles assigned to her are very different from those assigned to the male actcr. I will argue that most of the women's roles in the male canon are representations of a male construct— the woman as hysteric. Attempting to act these constructs creates a "hy sterical" reaction in the actress. And yet, I believe, there are feminist strategies for playing with the texts— digging into and under the hysterical sites. vii i Like other broad, oppressive forces that stifle women— hysterical constructs are damaging to the spirit of truth as well as to women. Offering feminist strategies for perfor mance demonstrates a belief that there is much of worth and certainly of beauty in the Western drama but only if women are free to re-create for themselves, so that drama says something they would like to say about women— or, at least, about the hysterical way men have written about women.