Action Reconsidered. Cognitive Aspects of the Relation between Script and Scenic Action Rynell, Erik 2008 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Rynell, E. (2008). Action Reconsidered. Cognitive Aspects of the Relation between Script and Scenic Action. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Action Reconsidered Cognitive Aspects of the Relation between Script and Scenic Action Erik Rynell ACTA SCENICA 22 Näyttämötaide ja tutkimus Teatterikorkeakoulu - Scenkonst och forskning - Teaterhögskolan - Scenic art and research - Theatre Academy Action Reconsidered Cognitive Aspects of the Relation between Script and Scenic Action Erik Rynell Doctoral dissertation Theatre Academy Department of Research Development / Department of Theatre and Drama / Dramaturgy Publisher Theatre Academy © Theatre Academy and Erik Rynell Cover design and layout: Tanja Konttinen Cover photo: light micrograph of human nerve cells ISBN (Paperback) 978–952–9765–48–5 ISSN 1238–5913 ISBN (pdf) 978–952–9765–49–2 ISSN 1238-5913 Printed by Yliopistopaino, Helsinki 2008 Abstract ACTION RECONSIDERED: COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF THE RELATION BETWEEN TEXT AND SCENIC ACTION. Contemporary cognitive science challenges the idea of the human brain as a kind of computer. Instead, the importance of the body for our way to understand and interact with the world has come into focus. Theories about the ”situated” and ”embodied” character of human cognition have implied that notions like action, consciousness, and intersubjectivity have gained renewed scientific interest. On the other hand, these elements have always retained crucial importance in theatre practice, not least in the actor’s process from the written text to action on stage. In the dissertation I apply theories from modern cognitive science to this process, such as this has been described by practioners in the theatre. My conclusion is that there are important coincidences between findings in modern cognitive science and basic insights in the practice of theatre. I start by indicating how the way in which the actor intentionally relates to the character’s situation forms a pattern that largely remains unaltered historically, despite the development of different acting styles. I also find coincidences between this pattern and theories about human interaction with the world as described by philosophers in the phenomenological tradition, such as Husserl, Merleau- Ponty and Zahavi, thinkers who also attract increased attention in cognitive science. I further argue that modern descriptions of human action as forms of ”dynamic-systems” could be fruitful ways in which to approach action on stage as well. In a final section I address dramatic writing that is not action-based, and that, hence, cannot in a corresponding way be related to the theories within cognitive science referred to. I find that much experimental theatre in the 20th century shares a reluctance with behaviourism to acknowledge the importance of intentional action. I argue that new findings about the human mind, unlike older ones, do not urge a description of human volition as predominantly directed by outside forces. The conclusion is that intentional action, which an important part of 20th century experimental and avant-garde theatre sets out to question, indeed deserves to be reconsidered. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 9 Cognitive Science 11 Embodied Cognition 13 The dramatic text as a model of meaning production 15 The Question 16 Method 18 The Plays 20 Definitions 20 Context 20 Meaning and Identity 22 Action 22 Intention and Consciousness 24 Action-based Drama 25 The Actor 26 Action Analysis 31 Background, Situation and Intention (BSI) 33 Drama without Action 35 2. CONTEXT AND SITUATEDNESS 39 Situated Action 39 Capturing the Situatedness: Action Analysis in Practice 44 An Application of the Analysis: Strindberg’s The Stronger 49 Elements of Situatedness in the Process from Text to Acting. BSI 52 Action and Situatedness. A look at Theatre History 56 Rhetoric and the “Paradigmatic shift” in 18th Century Acting Ideals 56 Action and Character 70 Summary 73 3. METHODOLOGY OF SITUATEDNESS 75 Modern Applications of a BSI Pattern 75 Stanislavski 79 Cohen 88 Hornby 90 Penciulescu 92 Donnellan 99 Situatedness in a phenomenological Perspective 106 The Self as a Story 109 The phenomenological Idea of Perception, Consciousness and Self-awareness as applied to a Play 112 Conclusion 120 4. ACTION, MIND AND COGNITION 124 Action and recent Theories within Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science 124 Consciousness 124 Intersubjectivity 126 The Theory of John R. Searle 129 The self 130 Searle on Consciousness 132 Intentionality 132 Action and the Freedom of Will 134 Construction of Social Reality 134 Fictional Discourse 135 The Application of Searle’s Ideas to Drama and Acting 137 Modality and Inferentiality 137 Embodiment and Intersubjectivity 139 Aspects of “Cognitive Science” 139 Cognitive Science: Challenges to Theories of Computational Representation 141 Lakoff and Johnson on Embodiment 147 Mirror Neurons 154 The Cultural Influence: Tomasello 160 A Dynamic Systems Account of human Agency: Alicia Juarrero 165 Evan Thompson 174 Conclusion 175 Consciousness 176 Intention 178 Change 180 Situation/Context 180 5. DRAMA WITHOUT ACTION 184 Early modern 189 The Turn of the 20th Century 189 Maeterlinck’s Interior 190 Symbolism 197 Symbolist Visuality 203 Symbolist Acting 203 The Ontological and Epistemological Background to 206 Maeterlinck’s Symbolism 206 Radical Modernism 209 Oskar Kokoschka: Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen 209 Kandinsky: Der Gelbe Klang 212 Futurist Theatre 216 Sprachskepsis 218 The Sturm Group and its Theatre 220 Stramm’s “Wortkunst” 225 Lothar Schreyer 232 Late Modern 241 Beckett 241 Beckett and Mauthner 245 Peter Handke: The Hour 250 Martin Crimp: Attempts on her Life 254 Sarah Kane: Crave 258 Drama without Action. Summary and Conclusions 262 6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS 274 ENDNOTES 279 REFERENCES 286 1. INTRODUCTION In recent years increased interest has been attracted by the fact that art is not only a means of communication, but also of gathering and processing knowledge. This has also led to the emergence of a novel kind of research where issues encountered in artistic practice are investigated by methods developed within the practice itself. As a consequence, art has ceased to be only an object of research and has become itself a point of departure for research, and this in its turn has led to the inauguration of masters and doctorate programmes at many art schools. The development of ”artistic research in practice” coincides with a growing interest in ”tacit knowledge”, which is defined as the knowledge of the practitioner, as exemplified in the skill of the artisan, but also in the unformulated knowledge produced in the artist’s work. In recent years important contributions to this field as related to theatre has been made in my own country by scholars such as Järleby, Lagerström, and Sjöström. Now, as regards theatre and acting the idea that artistic work is a way to process knowledge is in fact far from new. In much modern actor training one has since long emphasized the investigating character of the work on a role, and it is also stressed that the object of this investigation is not mere subjective experiences or fantasies but indeed reality itself. A similar idea about fiction as a way to approach reality can in fact be traced back even to antiquity. Still, the development of specialized artistic research in practice is new to the field of acting methodology as well. Parallel to this orientation in the practical artistic field towards investigation and research goes an increased scholarly and scientific interest in the pragmatic aspects of human knowledge and communication. An early example of this could be found in the contemporary development of the philosophy of language and in its continuation in the philosophy of mind. It is also extensively characteristic of the development during the last decades of cognitive science, a multidisciplinary interchange of knowledge about human mind and intelligence among fields like philosophy, psychology, neurology, computer science, linguistics and anthropology. 9 One thesis in this dissertation will be that research carried out in some parts of contemporary cognitive science has bearing to a great extent on theatre and acting as well, and that this is due not least to the revaluation taking place in this field of features related to human action, which is also a central element in theatre and acting. In 2006, in the final phase of the work on this thesis, Bruce McConachie and F. Elizabeth Hart issued an anthology, Performance and Cognition: Theatre Studies After the Cognitive Turn, which establishes the cognitive approach as a specific domain within theatre research. Moreover, the essentially pragmatic character of this cognitive approach also provides access to new connections between theatre theory and the practice of acting and performance, which also coincides with the aims of this thesis. This dissertation has been conceived in close contact with the practical aspects of playwrighting and acting.