ALIENATION AND THEATRICALITY IN B r e c h t a n d D id er o t Phoebe Annette von Held Slade School of Fine Art University College London University of London Thesis Submitted in Application for the Ph.D. in Fine Art April 2001 ProQuest Number: 10010406 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10010406 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Description of the Practice/Theory Relation in this Project This research project comprises a theoretical as well as a practical component. The theoretical component is contained in the form of a written dissertation, in vol. 1 of the submitted material. The practical component implied the investigation of ‘alienation and theatricality’ in Denis Diderot’s Neveu de Rameau in directorial terms. This involved a process of several stages, culminating in a stage production of Rameau’s Nephew, performed for 4 weeks in October 1998 at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. Prior to the final staging at the Citizens, I translated Le Neveu de Rameau into English with my collaborator Nina Pearlman, and conducted an experimental workshop with actors. My role in the Citizens production was to direct rehearsals and design set and costumes. The practical component of this project is represented in a video that documents the final staging of Rameau's Nephew. However, I wish to stress that I did not have the resources to restage the piece in a film studio, which would have done better justice to the medium of film. The production was filmed in an extra run outside of performance time, adjusted to the requirements of camera work, which meant that spatiality, choreography and the visuality of the piece were slightly altered. As documentary material of my practical experimentation with Diderot’s Rameau's Nephew and its implicit concerns with ‘alienation and theatricality’, vol. 2 provides the video of the Citizens production and a copy of the translated adaptation of Rameau's Nephew. The translation was undertaken specifically for the purpose of a staging. In this, the spoken and rhythmic dimension of the Diderotian idiom was of utmost importance and in order to preserve it we tried as much as possible to translate into English the highly specific punctuation of Diderot’s text. Abstract My research re-evaluates the Brechtian concept of alienation through the dramaturgical and literaiy thought of Denis Diderot. This project consists of a theoretical dissertation as well as a theatre production of Diderot’s Rameau's Nephew, performed at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow,} 1998, and documented in an attached video. Although the Brecht-Diderot connection has been established in previous studies, most notably by Roland Barthes, my aim is to show that we can enlarge and differentiate our understanding of alienation as a dramaturgical concept by focussing on the conceptual shifts emerging from a comparison between both writers. Rather than interpret Diderot as a historical predecessor of Brecht, as it has been proposed in the past, I have explored conceptual difference and contrast in the framework of two separate historical contexts, thereby calling into question the ideological positivism underlying Brecht’s concept of alienation. The outcome of my examination suggests that Brecht’s theory of acting as self­ alienation does not necessarily lead to its intended effect of alienated detachment on the part of the spectator. In opposition, Diderot concludes from the actor’s self-alienation an empathetic response in the spectator, placing this theory at the core of eighteenth- century bourgeois theatre ideology. Moreover, if Brecht’s concept of alienation is explicitly antagonistic to the notion of subjectivity, an analysis of Diderot’s Le Neveu de Rameau shows how alienation relies on subjective experience. Alienation leads to an effect of recognition once the spectator has recognised himself caught in a situation of aesthetic delusion. Contrary to Brecht’s Marxist concept of alienation which aims to sharpen the spectator’s political consciousness, thereby instigating resistance to the alienated conditions of capitalism, we can observe in Le Neveu de Rameau the strategic employment of alienation as an epistemological means of questioning the precepts of moralism, introducing a notion of critique dependent on ethical self-interrogation. Acknowledgements This project has enjoyed the generous input of many others. Thanks to a highly stimulating environment created by the research community at the Slade School of Fine Art, the active engagement of my supervisors and discussions with friends, far from being lonely, the work on this PhD has been a process of continual communication and exchange. Above all I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisors. In terms of practice, I wish to thank Philip Prowse for facilitating and supporting me in my directorial debut at the Citizens Theatre, the most exceptional theatre environment I could have hoped for. In terms of theory, I am most grateful to Marian Hobson for opening my mind to the thought of Diderot, the many inspiring discussions on Brecht, Diderot and the theatre, and for consistently accompanying me through every single step of this PhD. I wish to thank Michael Newman for his tutorial loyalty beyond institutions from the beginning to the very end of my PhD, for following both the practical as well as the theoretical side of my project, and providing me with much intellectual stimulation through seminars and dialogue. Moreover, I want to express my gratitude to Norman Bryson for his support in the writing-up period of my PhD, especially for his active presence and comments in the very final stages. I am also indebted to Tom Kuhn from the University of Oxford who very generously read and discussed with me an early draft of ‘Alienation in Brecht’, offering much constructive criticism and advice. Many thanks also to the Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv in Berlin for allowing me to research in the private Brecht library and answering subsequent inquiries over the telephone. Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge the support of both the Graduate School at UCL and the University of London Research Fund for offering a grant which facilitated the production of the Rameau's Nephew video. My thanks go also to the Citizens Theatre for accommodating and facilitating the special requirements of shooting the video and generally their assistance during the production period of Rameau's Nephew. For lack of space I can only mention a few of my friends who contributed with inspiration, discussion and practical support to my PhD. I especially wish to thank Aura Satz, for her most generous involvement in the final proof-reading and editing process. The same goes for Carolyn Deby and Miranda Wallace. I wish to thank my collaborator Nina Pearlman for making the translation of Rameau’s Nephew a highly dynamic process, and Pablo Bronstein for pointing out to me the affmties between Diderot and Goya. For his beautiful work and countless weekends spent over editing the Rameau’s Nephew video, I wish to thank Justin Badger; and Andrea Fredericksen in multiple roles as general PhD-advisor, technical sound assistant, friend and cousin. And thank you, person with a variation on the name of ‘Rameau’, for directorial advice during the Rameau's Nephew rehearsals and your assistance in helping me, from time to time, to alienate myself from ‘Alienation and Theatricality’. Table of Contents Abbreviations and Translations 7 Introduction 8 1. The Brecht-Diderot Connection 9 2. Aims of this Dissertation 17 3. of Entfremdung, Verfremdmg, Aliénation 25 PART 1 Actors of Alienation Chapter 1 Alienation in Brecht’s Theory of Acting 30 1.1 Dual Forms of Acting: Brecht’s Method of Self-Alienation 33 1.2 Brecht’s Art of Showing: The Difference between Being and Acting 36 1.3 The Actor’s Self-Alienation as a Weapon against Elusion 39 1.4 The Actor’s Self-Alienation is identical with the Spectator’s Alienation 43 1.5 The Geometry of the Dual Form and its Visual Dimension 47 1.6 Visuality and its Effects on the Temporal Order 49 1.7 Historisation {Historisierung) and Gestus 51 Chapter 2 Diderot’s Mimetic Alienations in Le Paradoxe sur le comédien 56 2.1 Dual Forms of Acting: Approximating Diderot to Brecht 57 2.2 Acting Cold or Hot? 59 2.3 The Law of Nature Versus the Law of Art 62 2.4 The Actor as a Producer of Doubles: ‘Cette incompréhensible distraction de soi d’avec soi’ 67 2.5 With the Eyes of the Other 72 2.6 Communication as Alienation 74 2.7 Alienation as Versatility 76 2.8 ‘L’illusion n’est que pour vous’ : The Deluding Effects of Self-Alienation 81 2.9 Brecht: An ‘Identifier’ in the Tradition of Sensibility? 87 2.10 The Visual Quality of Illusion 90 2.11 Gesturality and its Affects 91 2.12 ‘Horror yUieni’: Monkeys, Monsters, and Mimesis 96 2.13 The Marionette at Court: Presence of the Seventeenth Century in the Paradoxe 97 2.14 ‘The Poet has Engendered a Monster, Clairon made it Roar’ : From Puppet to Monster 103 PART 2 Alienation between Subjectivity and Objectivity