Framing Dialogues – Towards an Understanding of the Parergon in Theatre
Framing Dialogues – Towards an Understanding of the Parergon in Theatre Suzanne Little BA (Hons.) Drama Submitted for the Doctorate in Philosophy at the Queensland University of Technology, CIRAC. Page 1 of 453 Key words analysis, audience, conceptual framework, différance, director, frame, framing, interpretation, parergon, performance, practitioner, reception, space, supplément, theatre, trace, undecidability, virtuality Page 2 of 453 Abstract This project argues for an elevation and a greater understanding of the importance of framing in theatre. In this respect, the study follows on from Derrida’s famous deconstruction of Kant’s parergon (frame) in his Critique of Judgement. Derrida’s work exposes what he sees as a complicit desire to ‘limit’ the frame to the role of ‘decorative adjunct’. Finding the frame to be ‘undecidable’, Derrida asserts that the frame actively affects the work inside and the space outside while answering a ‘lack’ within the work. Utilising Derrida’s work on the parergon as a starting point, this study represents an attempt to formulate a theory of the frame for theatre asserting that the frame provides a prospective key towards understanding persistent ‘problems’ within theatre studies. These include the complicated onstage/offstage and spectator/actor dialectics as well as the point where ‘reality’ ends and theatre begins and also issues of agreed interpretation. Ultimately the thesis posits that theatre is in itself a parergon which virtualises the space in which it installs itself – a finding that goes some way to explaining and/or accommodating these ‘problems’. The research methodology involves a detailed study of literature encompassing framing and related theories drawn from a diverse array of paradigms.
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