Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2014 Dora Cubed: A Multimodal Analysis of Canonical Representations of Dora Bauer from the Perspectives of Metaethics, Multiplicitous Identity, and Cubism Evangeline Ciupek Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF VISUAL ARTS, THEATRE AND DANCE DORA CUBED: A MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS OF CANONICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF DORA BAUER FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF METAETHICS, MULTIPLICITOUS IDENTITY, AND CUBISM By EVANGELINE CIUPEK A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2014 Evangeline Ciupek defended this thesis on April 15, 2014. The members of the supervisory committee were: Kris Salata Professor Directing Thesis Mary Karen Dahl Committee Member Dan Sack Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii Dedicated to Donald “Papa Don” Trant and Charles “Bird” Poole. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take the time to acknowledge certain individuals whose encouragement and support have given me strength in the process: Brady Peterson, Rachel Yubeta, Jonathan Ciupek-Reed, Kira, Paul, Clyde, and Joy Ciupek, Charles Poole Sr., Aaron Thomas, Jeff Paden, Marie Patrick, and Jacky Dumas. Thanks to the cast and crew of The Dora Project for helping manifest my research on stage. And a special thanks to Kris Salata, chair, mentor, and friend. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. viii INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 Introductions: Ida, Meet Dora, Meet Dora .................................................................... 1 Ida/Dora’s Identity Crisis ............................................................................................... 2 Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 4 A Multimodal Approach: Metaethics, Multiplicitous Identity, Cubism ...................... 5 Structure of Multimodal Questions and Analysis ........................................................ 8 1. FREUD’S DORA: THE STORY OF THREE MONTHS WITH AN HYSTERIC................10 Strategies ...................................................................................................................... 10 Documentation, Treatment, and Freud’s Ethics ........................................................ 13 Structural Ethics: Transcribing Convoluted Speech .................................................. 17 Freud’s Cubist Portrait of Dora ................................................................................... 19 The Interpretation of Dora’s Dreams .......................................................................... 22 Freud’s Multiplicitous Nature ..................................................................................... 24 2. CIXOUS’ DORA: COSMIC FEMALE, RESISTING BODY ................................................28 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 28 The Ethics of Écriture Féminine ................................................................................. 31 Dora, Meet Cixous ........................................................................................................ 37 Dora’s Discrepancies and Multiplicities in Portrait of Dora ...................................... 40 Multiplicity in Dreams ................................................................................................ 43 A Cubist Portrait of Dora ............................................................................................. 45 Resistance and Écriture Féminine .............................................................................. 48 v 3. PHILOSOPHICAL AND PRACTICAL QUESTIONS OF THEATRICAL REPRESENTATION, JUSTICE, DIMENSIONALITY, FEMINISM, AND AESTHETICS .......................................................................................................................... 50 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 50 Writing Dora, Writing Self: Creating History Through Speech Acts ............ 50 Ethics in the Gender Binary ............................................................................ 53 The Postmodern Kickback – A Multiplicitous, Cubist Resistance ................ 55 The Male Gaze As Culprit ................................................................................ 57 In the Pursuit of Phronesis: A Casebook on The Dora Project .................................. 60 Phase One: The Impulse Read ......................................................................... 61 Phase Two: Work-shopping The Dora Project ................................................ 66 CONCLUSION: A MANIFESTO FOR CUBIST ETHICS AS A FORM OF THERAPEUTIC THEATRE .................................................................................................... 80 APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................... 85 A. THE DORA PROJECT ........................................................................................................ 85 Cast of Characters ........................................................................................................ 86 Prologue ........................................................................................................................ 87 Parodos .......................................................................................................................... 88 First Episode ................................................................................................................. 89 Second Episode ............................................................................................................. 93 Third Episode.............................................................................................................. 103 Fourth Episode ............................................................................................................108 Fifth Episode ...............................................................................................................113 B. THE DORA PROJECT LYRIC AND CHORD SHEETS ................................................. 116 “That feeling you get in the fog of electroconvulsive therapy” ..................................116 vi “Charcot the Charlatan” .............................................................................................119 “Hagiomania; or, Bellum in Sanctum Sanctorum” ................................................... 121 “Most Men Lead Lives” ...............................................................................................123 “I Live, Motherfucker” .................................................................................................125 C. COPYRIGHT APPROVAL FORM .....................................................................................128 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................129 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .................................................................................................. 133 vii ABSTRACT Dora is a multiplicitous being who transcends time, space, and reality like a cubist painting. A pseudo-fictional, literary character based on a once living woman, Ida Bauer, Dora is an amalgamation of Ida and of Freud, who published the sole account of Ida’s case of hysteria. I will research the two most striking iterations of Dora Bauer –the casebook Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria by Sigmund Freud and the stage play Portrait of Dora by Hélène Cixous. My multimodal form of analysis encompasses three distinct modes. Through the first mode, metaethics, I aim to assess Freud and Cixous’ arguments and ethics of representation, not to judge, but to reveal the validity of their potential motivations when viewed through each one’s individual matrix of ethics. Through the second, Naomi Scheman’s multiplicitous identity theory, I will investigate the signs of multiplicity in Dora’s portrayal by both Freud and Cixous. Through the final mode of analysis, cubism as an art form in concert with Non-Euclidean geometry, I will reveal both Freud and Cixous’ fourth dimensional quality of writing and of representation. Metaethics, multiplicitous identity, and cubism can be modes of resistance, of therapy for the theatre. In concert with this thesis, I have created a rehearsal process in which the actors and I investigated these modes within the theatre. With Dora as our subject, we have created an experimental reading of Cixous’ Portrait of Dora, and we have written and composed an original play with music The Dora Project. I will explain in the final chapter how we set about manifesting this scholarship on stage and what we encountered along the way. viii INTRODUCTION Because it has always already begun, representation