Spectacle

Disney and its spectacularly successful theme parks are analyzed
through the lens of its consumers. We focus on how Disney
manages the consumption experience and discuss Disney strategies from several perspectives. Disney provides a paradigm for contemporary consumption. A framework is presented to
understand consumption in Disney and Disneyesque settings.
Finally, we offer cautions and critiques regarding such strategies-a
guide for the informed consumer

One of the presuppositions of this paper is that is indeed possible to conceive of Bowies death as an ‘event’ that was staged, mediated and performed by means of the Blackstar-album, and more particularly, by the song Lazarus. To further support that claim, I situate the Bowie case within a scholarly discourse on the representation and framing(s) of death in contemporary Western societies. Following the work of the Danish sociologist Michael Hviid Jacobsen (2016), I argue that we can further interpret and conceptualize the death of David Bowie through the lens of what Jacobsen coined ‘Spectacular Death’, a term that designates a ‘’revival of interest in death, dying and bereavement’’, in which we ‘’see the rise of new rituals and the reappearance and reinvention of old ones in many ceremonial practices [and] media representations’’.  Central to these media representations is a globalized culture of digital media, which makes it increasingly difficult to draw any spatial or geographical boundaries whatsoever.

Nach einer kurzen Erörterung der Frage, inwieweit Spektakel zur Populärkultur zu zählen seien, wird zentral das Thema der Gewinnung von Wissen bei der Rezeption von Spektakeln behandelt. Ästhetisches Erleben, so die These, ist wesentlich körperliches Erleben, und bezieht sich wesentlich auf körperlich-sinnliches Wissen. Spektakel als Unterhaltungsangebote werden nicht nur kognitiv-rational, sondern gleichermaßen sinnlich-affektiv angeeignet. Vor allem das bezeichnet "aisthesis" als sinnliche Erkenntnis.
Konkreter wird die These mit Intepretationen von Richard Dyer belegt, die die Effekte nicht-sprachlicher, nicht-begrifflicher Dimensionen von Filmen demonstrieren. Farben, Bewegungen, Rhythmen, Räume, Musik und Schauspieler*innen-Images wirken über affektive Codes auf bedeutungsgeladene Stimmungen hin - etwa auf die Erzeugung "utopischer" Energien.

This presentation shall have an essay type form, and I will talk about my painting-work and the circumstances that influenced it to look the way it does. Therefore, many of the ideas I am going to write about, came from theorists and artists who meant a great deal to me, who helped me understand why I do this kind of painting, but those ideas were interpreted and contextualized through my experience. Therefore, I shall not list them in footnotes and literature. First of all, I would like to thank theorists such as

This article seeks to evaluate the visual style of Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, predominantly through an analysis of the films’ aesthetics. The use of Rotoshop as an expressive means to illustrate character and theme, where identity becomes sketched and multi-faceted rather than fixed or stable is explored here. Yet this aesthetic play with borders has a greater resonance than simply a means by which to delineate thematic preoccupations with troubled identity. While such representations are indeed key to these two films, the darkly outlined contours of character borders, which move and slide incessantly, also comment on the blurred divide between live action and animation. Central to the argument is the use of the animated line in understanding these two films; the line provides impetus for exploring several issues raised by the films and the use of Rotoshop. This article explores the following key ideas: the animated line and aesthetic analysis; Rotoshop technology; the repres...

ÖSSZEFOGLALÓ A tanulmány kiindulópontja szerint a radikális társadalomkritika napjainkban tapasztal-ható elbizonytalanodásának okai között központi helyet foglal el a " valóság válságának " problematikája. A radikális társadalomkritika egyik első számú politikaelméleti pillére az ideológia látszat/valóság-modellje volt. A látszat eszerint ideológiakritikai fogalom: erede-tileg azokat a tapasztalatokat, gondolatokat, képeket és érzületeket jelenti, amelyekre az adott kor önmagával kapcsolatos illúziói épülnek. Ez a szemléletmód nagy népszerűségre tett szert a szélesebb társadalomtudományi értelmiség és a politikával foglalkozó elméle-tek körében is. Vonzerejét az adta, hogy radikális reményei a valóság intellektuális feltér-képezéséhez, annak leleplező erejéhez kapcsolódtak, vagyis ahhoz a feltételezéshez, hogy a nagybetűs Valóság tényeinek és folyamatainak előbb-utóbb meg kell törniük a látszat nevében épülő közös társadalmi illúzió, a " látszat valóságának " uralmát. Az elmúlt évti-zedekben az ideológia látszat/valóság-modelljének vonzereje látványosan csökkent a tár-sadalomtudományokban, aminek véleményem szerint három oka van. Először: a posztmo-dern ismeretelméleti szkepszise a valóság megismerhetőségével kapcsolatban. Másodszor: a társadalomelmélet interpretatív fordulata, amely az ideológiaelmélet középpontjába a valóság elfedése és konstrukciója helyett a realitástól " független " diszkurzív, imaginárius és jelentésformációk (meaning formations) elemzését állította. A tanulmányban az ideo-lógiakritikai látszat/valóság-modell elbizonytalanodásának harmadik fő komponensét kí-vánom a középpontba állítani. Eszerint napjainkra a valóság leleplező erejébe vetett álta-lános hit veszett el, vagyis megerősödött az a meggyőződés, hogy a későkapitalizmusban/ posztmodern társadalmakban a valósággal " valami történt ". Írásomban Guy Debord, Jean Baudrillard és Douglas Kellner teoretikus innovációit kívánom bemutatni a valóság prob-lémássá válásának kérdésköre kapcsán. Arra a kérdésre keresem a választ, hogy elgondo-lásaik szerint napjainkban hogyan fogalmazható újra a valóság és a látszat viszonya. Első-sorban elemzéseik politikaelméleti vonatkozásaira koncentrálok: a tanulmány fő tézise szerint ugyanis Debord, Baudrillad és Kellner elsődleges célja, hogy alkalmassá tegyék az ideológia látszat/valóság-modelljét a politika folyamatainak és működésének megértésére saját korukban, illetve lehetővé tegyék a radikális politizálás újraalapozását ennek alapján. Az elmúlt közel két évszázad radikális társadalomkritikái intellektuális és im-pulzív erejüket sok esetben kétségtelenül a leleplezés aktusából, a valóságnak a látszattal szembeni bemutatásából merítették. Ez elsősorban egyfajta realis-ta tudományos irányultságot jelentett: az egyre inkább teret nyerő, a felszíni

An exclusively Canadian textbook, this collection investigates the relationships between identity, geography, and popular culture that are produced and consumed in this sprawling country. Expanding beyond the clichés of friendliness and snow, this text provides a fresh perspective on what it means to be Canadian, both nationally and transnationally. Scholars look at historical subjects like Quebecois identity and Indigenous self-representation and explore issues in contemporary media, including music, film, television, comic books, video games, and social media. From Drake to the Tragically Hip, Trailer Park Boys to The Amazing Race Canada, and poutine to maple syrup, mainstream icons and trends are studied in the interdisciplinary context of race, gender, sexuality, politics, and patriotism. Contributing to the location of Canadian popular culture, this unique resource will engage students and scholars of communication studies, cultural studies, and Canadian studies.

Teatry anatomiczne, niezwykle popularne w XVI i XVII-wiecznej Europie, łączyły teatr i medycynę nierozerwalnie, choć w sposób pełen wewnętrznych sprzeczności, stanowiąc ciekawy przykład tego to, co Foucault nazywał anatomopolityczną władzą nad ciałem.
Spektakl anatomiczny, publicznie naruszający integralność ludzkiego ciała, stał się w okresie nowożytnym nie tylko dopuszczalny, ale w pewnych warunkach nawet zalecany, traktowany jako „materia godna teatralnej oprawy”.

Deserts have a special prominence in apocalyptic visions of the future. As a trope, the desert frequently indexes apocalyptic visions of the warming planet and future challenges of securing food, energy, and water in a changing environment. This article considers how diffuse visions of "environmental apocalypse" are spun through narratives constructions of the desert as sites of utopia and dystopia -- places where humanity is simultaneously portrayed as meeting its most dire possibilities of collapse, but also places where hopeful futures might be tested out and extremes overcome in an era of climate catastrophe. This article offers a genealogy of techno-scientific schemes in the Arizona desert and the "visioneers" behind them, focusing on the most iconic example of Biosphere 2. Initiated in the mid-1980s, Biosphere 2's history illustrates how such projects are underpinned by multiple forms of spectacle, which draw on the ideals of science, technology, and environmental salvation to build settler colonial structures of exclusion and Indigenous dispossession. By centering the question of whose apocalypse we are being sold in such techno-centric "solutions" to ecological dilemmas, this article expands recent discussions of environmental injustice and settler colonial violence to show how ostensibly "progressive" ideals and initiatives are also violent and routinely overwrite histories and presents of colonial dispossession.

The essay asserts that, since pioneering work in the 1970s and 80s (in Screen in particular), the study of classical Hollywood cinema has failed to adequately acknowledge and understand the role of spectacle therein. This essay outlines theoretical but, even more, practical understandings of particular kinds of spectacle; they are susceptible of the practice of close textual analysis. Seeking to discuss spectacle in precise terms and in particular contexts, I define two kinds of spectacle associated with the historical film: ‘the décor of history’ and ‘the spectacular vista’.
The example of Gone with the Wind illustrates the interrelationship between these two kinds of spectacle and their associations with particular ideas of femininity and masculinity. This gendering of spectacle is related to ‘the historical gaze’, a performative gesture that exemplifies the wider rhetoric of historical films, in their seeking to address the historical knowledge of the film spectator and to uphold a vision of history as being driven by powerful men, aware of their own destiny. Over the course of the three famous hilltop scenes in Gone with the Wind, one can plot Scarlett O’Hara’s (Vivien Leigh) increased access to this kind of foresight and fortitude coded as ‘masculine’. This character arc can also be traced through Scarlett’s shifting place within the film’s use of spectacle: she begins the film wholly preoccupied with the domestic world of lavish parties and beautiful gowns; however, after her encounter with cataclysmic history visualised as a vast, terrible spectacle (the fall of Atlanta), Scarlett assumes the role occupied by her broken and emasculated father.

No major professional sports league epitomizes Guy Debord's idea of the spectacle more than the NBA. The league was the first to understand the importance of highlights and global expansion, and participated in creating the first branded superstar in Michael Jordan. Naturally there are some controversies surrounding the rise to its present-day status, like the (supposedly) fixed 1985 draft or Michael Jordan's (supposedly) enforced first retirement. One of the most controversial events in recent league history took place during Game Six of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. A lot of controversial calls by the referees allowed the Lakers to win the game and eventually the series. As the Lakers were about to get eliminated, the league officials allegedly encouraged referees to force a Game Seven. The problem with the allegations was that they were made public by former referee Tim Donaghy, who himself used to bet on games. David Stern, the league's former commissioner was referring to Donaghy's gambling addiction as the reason for the falsity of his statements. My paper uses the game in question as a case study in order to present the spectacular aspects of the
NBA.

Ancient Greek tragedy addresses a myriad of themes, from questions of identity to socio-political changes and issues. The Bacchae is a perfect example of these themes, especially regarding the question of gender (self) and the differences between women and men (other). Dionysus, returning to his mother’s birthplace, wants to come “home” and be recognized and worshiped as a god. Yet, he finds resistance and denial by Pentheus, his cousin, who is also the king of Thebes. It seems that only through utter acceptance of his deity, Dionysus can actually become a God – doubt or denial remove his god-like supremacy. Thus, transforming his wrath into action, he does not only want to take revenge upon Pentheus and punish him for his disbelief, but the whole city must suffer obliteration. Disguised – or better, masked - as a mortal, he changes his identity into what he does not want to be assimilated with in order to strategically take out his enemy.

In a recent article in Vogue Australia, Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten remarked that he does not advertise, preferring to ‘communicate and immerse people in the brand’ through his fashion shows (Cavanagh 2014). Yet many of his customers will never attend any of these shows, their “immersion” dependent on what is published by those who were there.

Herein lies the contradiction of contemporary fashion shows: they are performances largely intended for an audience who is not present. In creating these one-off, exclusive shows, fashion labels create a visual world around their product, a narrative to beguile potential customers in a context that delays their gratification. This is enacted through media that extends the life of the spectacle. Such media represents what was shown and offers a glimpse of the atmosphere of the show, ultimately working to draw us, however briefly, into the world of the brand. Yet they do not convey the sense of what it was like to be there. The theatrical components that work in concert with one another to create an ephemeral story around a collection, if mentioned at all by reviewers, serves to support the main act: the collection itself.
Although fashion shows are intrinsic to how contemporary fashion labels display their product to consumers, their occurrence—and function—as spectacular performances have been left largely unexamined by scholars. Drawing on ethnographic work conducted at Australian Fashion Week, this article argues that the power of fashion shows as performance lies in their spectacular nature. MacAloon’s spectacle theory (1984) provides a theoretical framework by which the grandeur, ambiguity, gigantism and visual primacy of fashion shows is unpacked, to demonstrate that fashion shows, like the collections they launch, are ultimately “things to be seen” (MacAloon 1984:243). In so doing, this article will also analyse the relationship between such presentations and the showing label, arguing that one of the central functions of live fashion shows is to circulate a brand’s identity, and one particularly imbued with prestige and desire.

This is a Czech translation of Tertullian's De spectaculis with a Latin text according to the edition of M. Turcan. The whole book is funished with a thorough introductory study on Tertullian's life, work and De spectaculis, a detailed commentary on the tract, and extensive bibliography.

Reviews:

Vox Patrum (Lublin, Polska) 24, 46–47, 2004, 664–669 Jozef Figiel
Listy filologické 128, 1–2, 2005, 204-206 Eva Stehlíková
Revue d’etudes augustiniennes et patristiques 52, 2006, 435-436 Martin Bažil
Auriga – ZJKF 48, 2006, 118–125 Markéta Koronthályová
Sambucus II, 2007, 245-248 Daniel Škoviera
Host 10, 2004, 56–57 Jana Nechutová
Divadelní revue 1, 2005, 70 Alena Sarkissian

""The camera supposedly never lies, yet film's ability to frame, cut and reconstruct all that passed before its lens made cinema the pre-eminent medium of visual illusion and revelation from the early twentieth century onwards. This volume examines film's creative history of special effects and trickery, encompassing everything from George Méliès’ first trick films to the modern CGI era. Evaluating movements towards the use of computer-generated 'synthespians' in films such as Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within (2001), this title suggests that cinematic effects should be understood not as attempts to perfectly mimic real life, but as constructions of substitute realities, situating them in the cultural lineage of the stage performers and illusionists and of the nineteenth century. With analyses of films such as Destination Moon (1950), Spider-Man (2002) and the King Kong films (1933 and 2006), this new volume provides an insight into cinema's capacity to perform illusions." Shortlisted for the And/Or Book Awards, 2009. Reviewed by Deborah Allison at Bright Lights Film Journal: "As the standard model of high-budget filmmaking moves ever closer to twenty-four lies per second, North’s articulate musings on our relationships with cinema and technology are both puissant and timely. His impeccably researched potted history of the most canonical titles of American special-effects cinema is in itself a job well done. Yet the author also has things of importance to say about contemporary culture beyond the bounds of the cinema frame, and it is this that elevates Performing Illusions from a simple history to a challenging and engaging inquiry. Developments in editing, double exposure, and the animation of plasticine may indeed hold their fascinations, yet these somehow fade into the background when one is invited to reflect on the extent to which synthespians embody “our own fear of replication and obsolescence, our replacement by digital constructs capable of outstripping our every ability and nuance.” Here indeed is some real food for thought." (http://brightlightsfilm.com/66/66booksillusions.php) Reviewed by D. Harlan Wilson in Extrapolation: "Performing Illusions is among the finest and most inventive books on film I have read this century [...] Canny analyses and insights regarding the technocapitalist aspects of special effects render unique, often metanarrational readings of cinematic flesh and desire and the relationship between spectacle and spectator." Reviewed in Empire (****): http://drnorth.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/performing_illusions_empire_review1.jpg Reviewed in Total Film (****): http://drnorth.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/performing_illusion_total_film_review1.jpg"

[English abstract below]
Bien que la «Neuvième livraison» des planches de L’Encyclopédie (1772) consacrée au théâtre et à ses machines suggère d’abord une démarche positiviste, voire mécaniste, l’ensemble des planches constitue surtout aussi un document précieux sur l’imaginaire du théâtre classique. Ce volume semble proposer une vision raisonnée des  moyens dont diposait alors le théâtre le mieux équipé, l’Opéra de Paris, pour concrétiser sur la scène l’univers merveilleux baroque. Or, au-delà de la première impression de technicité, prometteuse d’un savoir concret et pratique, les schémas de machine s’avèrent tout à fait insuffisants à faire comprendre au non-spécialiste comment les dispositifs fonctionnent en réalité. Le rôle de ces planches est de dresser le catalogue des lieux communs scénographiques, le lexique d’un idiome vieux de presque deux siècles qui trouve ici son ultime transcription; loin de constituer un document vivant de la pratique théâtrale de leur époque, elles offrent au lecteur l’image nostalgique et figée d’un imaginaire classique qui était déjà irrémédiablement voué à la disparition.

Although the ninth set of plates for L’Encyclopédie (1772) devoted to theater and its machines seems at first to promote a positivistic, and even mechanistic vision, this set of illustrations really constitutes a precious document on the French “classical” imagination. This volume apparently proposes a rational approach to the means then available to a sophisticated playhouse such as the Paris Opera for materializing on stage the wondrous universe of baroque drama. However, beyond the initial impression of technical accuracy and its promise of concrete, practical knowledge, the machinery schematics turn out to be quite insufficient when it comes to understanding, as a non-specialist, how the devices actually worked. In fact, these plates were really designed to provide a catalog of stagecraft commonplaces, a lexicon for a two-century old idiom that is transcribed here for the last time. Far from being a living document on theatrical practices of their time, the engravings offer the reader the stilted, nostalgic image of a classical imagination that was already fading into obsolescence.

Brown University Comparative Literature Honors Thesis analyzing and comparing the Jorge Luis Borges story, "The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero", and the Bernardo Bertolucci film based on it, "The Spider's Stratagem", dealing with the politics of spectacle and the spectacle of politics.

Guy Debord byl francouzským spisovatelem a marxistickým teoretikem, filmařem s  experimentálním přístupem a především aktivistou vymezujícím se proti konzumní společnosti. Následující text se snaží přiblížit jeho ideje, okolnosti, za kterých žil a tvořil a kolektivy, ve kterých působil. Dále se práce věnuje aspektům současné sociální reality rezonující s Debordovou interpretací vývoje společnosti, ale také kritikou, kterou Debordovi oponují jiní intelektuálové.
Guy Debord vydal svoje stěžejní dílo s  názvem Společnost spektáklu v druhé polovině 60. let ve Franci. Kritizoval boom masové zábavy a komercionalizace kultury. Pozoroval, jak začalo sílit podřizování se kulturní estetiky a způsobu prezentace událostí ve společnosti v médiích tržním mechanismům. Kultura se stala zbožím a hybnou silou v oblasti ekonomiky a vykořisťování lidí  přešlo z
materiální roviny do roviny psychologické. Kapitalistickou degradaci lidské existence maskuje spektákl - vykonstruovaná falešná realita, kterou většina lidí slepě přijímá za  danou.
Debord se snažil narušit stabilitu spektakulární společnosti nejen na papíře, ale i v rámci  aktivit lettristického a situacionistického hnutí, kde se bojovalo s urbanizovaným konzumním prostorem hravými přístupy a dehonestovaly se projevy spektáklu obracením jejich poselství naruby.
Kritický přístup Guye Deborda dodnes rezonuje ve společnosti, stejně jako lettristé a situacionisté mají svoje následovníky mezi současnými angažovanými lidmi, kteří  kreativně zabydlují městský prostor a sabotují spektakulární slogany na všudypřítomných reklamních plochách.  Proto je pro čtenáře pokládají si otázky o směřování kultury v současné společnosti nebo pro aktivisty, kteří hledají inspiraci, je Debordovo dílo a život stále aktuální.

En este trabajo, propongo una actualización crítica del concepto de espectáculo formulado por Guy Debord en su obra La sociedad del espectáculo. A través de este concepto, sugiero interpretar las prácticas de promoción del yo en la web 2.0 como una forma de mercantilización de la identidad. Para ello, el concepto de espectáculo es descrito como crítica de una ideología que convierte las relaciones humanas en rela-ciones entre mercancías. Posteriormente, se examina cómo esta ideología puede estar influyendo en la forma en que los individuos articulan su i-dentidad en las redes sociales. Finalmente, se plantean algunos proble-mas vinculados a la manera que tiene Debord de comprender la ideo-logía, sugiriendo posibles formas para salvar el potencial crítico y analí-tico de su propuesta. Abstract: In this paper, I propose to critically update the concept of spectacle coined by Guy Debord in his work 'The society of spectacle'. By means of this concept, I suggest to interpret the practices of self-promotion in the web 2.0 as a form of identity commodification. To this effect, the concept of spectacle is described as the critique of an ideology that transforms human relations into relations between commodities. Afterwards, I examine how this ideology might be influencing how individuals articulate their identity in social networks. Finally, some problems are raised in relation to how Debord understands ideology, suggesting different ways to rescue the critical and analytical potential of his proposal.

Water played an important part of ancient Roman life, from providing necessary drinking water, supplying bath complexes, to flowing in large-scale public fountains. The Roman culture of water was seen throughout the Roman Empire, although it was certainly not monolithic and it could come in a variety of scales and forms, based on climatic and social conditions of different areas. This article seeks to define ‘water culture’ in Roman society by examining literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, while understanding modern trends in scholarship related to the study of Roman water. The culture of water can be demonstrated through expressions of power, aesthetics, and spectacle. Further there was a shared experience of water in the empire that could be expressed through religion, landscape, and water’s role in cultures of consumption and pleasure.

- A Paper Given at the Contested_Cities International Congress, Madrid 4th - 7th July 2016 -

The paper argues that the European Green Capital Initiative has become enrolled in a post-political moment in Bristol, UK, to aid in ongoing processes of 4th wave gentrification. The paper utilizes a visual semiology approach to understand the signifiers presented by two key videos which were produced by the Bristol Green Capital Partnership to ‘sell’ Bristol to the rest of the world. These videos, analyzed in the context of Wilson and Swyngedouw’s (2015) definitions of post politics demonstrate a clear tendency for the city to become fetishized in various ways, but mostly focusing on middle-class, cultural and creative conceptions of ‘fun’ and ‘quirk’ to enroll a specific social configuration in their portrayal of ‘Green’ politics. This enrolment, it is argued, leads to an emptiness of the signifiers present and produces new nature(s) which are perceived as incontestable and unified ‘truths’. The paper then argues that this unification of the non-unifiable is problematic for allowing a political moment to emerge from different conceptions of nature. The paper concludes with a radical call to re-evaluate Lefebvre’s Right to the City thesis in relation to reclaiming socio-natures and allowing for a more political politics to emerge around the notion of difference and contestability.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Art Bulletin.

Resumen: El presente trabajo pretende despejar los rasgos definitorios del concepto de «espectáculo». Primero se presenta un estudio básico de la estructura de ese concepto, junto con un supuesto ficticio que sirve para delimitar un concepto clave como es el de «acontecimiento»; a continuación, enumeramos las características del acontecimiento desde la perspectiva de la teoría de la comunicación, destacando en especial el rasgo definitorio de la «espectacularidad»; a continuación, partiendo nuevamente del supuesto ficticio en oposición a la narración del mismo, nos ocupamos de describir los cinco rasgos fundamentales de definición de «espectáculo»; concluimos con una aplicación de los mismos tanto al supuesto como a otros casos similares, extraídos de la experiencia artística. Palabras clave: espectáculo, expectación, acontecimiento, teoría de los espectáculos, estética, teoría del teatro.

Abstract: This paper aims to clear up the defining features of the concept of spectacle. It is firstly given a basic study of the structure of that concept, together with a fictitious case that exemplifies the concept of «event»; then, we will enumerate the characteristics of any event from the perspective of communication theory, emphasizing the definitory trait «being spectacular»; after, and again starting from that fictitious case in opposition to its oral narration, we take care to describe the five key features for defining «spectacle»; finally we conclude with an application of those features to both the fictitious case and other similar ones, drawn from the artistic experience.

Reproduire le réel et s’en évader au profit de l’imaginaire, c’est une alternative qui traverse tous les genres littéraires mais elle se pose avec une acuité particulière au théâtre dont le statut est double, à la fois texte et représentation. Le théâtre, par ses artifices matériels et ses conventions, semble nous écarter du réel : les termes jeu et jouer indiquent bien ce côté factice et illusoire du théâtre. Ce paradoxe séduisant ouvre un débat qui ne semble pourtant pas très simple et que Victor Hugo réclame dans le recueil de notes Tas de pierres III (1830-1833) comme « le théâtre n’est pas le pays du réel : il y a des arbres de carton, des palais de toiles, un ciel de haillons, des diamants de verre, de l’or de clinquant, du fard sur la pêche, du rouge sur la joue, un soleil qui sort de dessous terre. C’est le pays du vrai : il y a des cœurs humains sur la scène, des cœurs humains dans la coulisse, des cœurs humains dans la salle . »
L’opposition des termes « réel » et « vrai » nous amène à poser cette problématique : Si le théâtre n'est pas « le pays du réel », il ne dépasse-t-il pas l'artifice pour nous conduire par des détours à ce qu’Hugo appelle « le vrai »? Ainsi, cela nous suggère d’autres sous-questions : -Qu'est-ce qui est artificiel dans le théâtre ? -Qu'est-ce qui est vrai dans le théâtre ? -Comment se fait-il qu'un art aussi artificiel et conventionnel permette d'atteindre une certaine authenticité ?
Dans cette dissertation, nous tenterons de répondre à ces questions, d’analyser l’affirmation de Victor Hugo et d’expliquer sa vision du théâtre en convoquant d’autres arguments théoriques du théâtre.

Si le présent travail vous a paru utile, merci de la citer :                       
KAISARLI, Zoi, 2021. L’Esthétique du stand-up en France au XXIe siècle. Approche stylistique du genre. Mémoire de master sous la direction de Mme Florence Mercier-Leca. Pour l'ensemble du mémoire, vous pouvez me contacter [zoi. kaisarli @ etu. sorbonne-universite. fr]


Sous-genre de la comédie qui brise le quatrième mur théâtral, le stand-up, après sa légitimation comme forme d’art aux États-Unis dans les années 1970 et 1980, arrive en France dans les années 1990 et devient de plus en plus populaire. Notre sujet est ainsi l’analyse du discours du stand-up français, ayant comme objectif de relever les caractéristiques principales du genre afin de pouvoir le définir esthétiquement. Il s’agit d’un travail stylistique, qui se fonde d’un côté sur les théories linguistiques de l’énonciation, de la polyphonie et de l’humour verbal, et de l’autre côté, sur la tradition rhétorique, qui se répand des figures rhétoriques aux preuves et à l’argumentation.
Plus précisément, après avoir expliqué les enjeux de l'énonciation du stand-up comme discours humoristique [Première partie], nous décrivons de façon thématique et synthétique l’organisation du discours stand-upien [Deuxième partie] et le style oratoire du stand-upeur français [Troisième partie]. Nous questionnons notamment les sujets de l’improvisation et de l’autofiction. Enfin, ayant prouvé son caractère spectaculaire, nous tentons de placer le stand-up dans l’espace-temps culturel et nous présenterons nos hypothèses sur son avènement et son avenir [Quatrième partie]. Par conséquent, le caractère du mémoire reste philologique : un mémoire général et panoramique qui situe le genre du stand-up dans l’histoire et la critique littéraire et qui peut nous servir comme base aux recherches futures.

This article approaches Mathew Arnold’s epic poem Sohrab and Rustum as an example of a highly visualised form of narrative, and places it within a historical and cultural context in the nineteenth century in order to illustrate how it both appropriates the hegemonic aesthetics of vision while questioning an epistemology based on it. By analysing examples of Arnold’s poetic language and thematic structuring of Sohrab and Rustum, the article examines how Matthew Arnold incorporated aspects of such aesthetics into his poem from various forms of eighteenth and nineteenth century spectacular art. Furthermore, by imitation of Homeric epics, Arnold created a highly visual form of narrative discourse, which nonetheless casts a critical eye on the hegemony of vision in the nineteenth century British culture.

ABSTRACT: From the moment that executions of Christians in Roman spectacles buildings began to take place, the amphitheatre, as being the generic of such public buildings, becomes one of the paradigmatic settings of Christian identity. This would help to explain the emergence —after the Peace of the Church— of Christian buildings involving a worship of martyrial nature in the arenas of abandoned or unused entertainment buildings. The ludic substrate of certain martyrdoms allowed hagiographers to compose stories with an architectural background scenery full of symbolism that helped to emphasize the martyrial victory of the "athletes of Christ", thus contributing largely to explain this further relationship between Christian building and playful architecture occurred from the late fourth century and early fifth century and detected in the late antique and early medieval topography of some Roman cities. However, this issue has gone relatively unnoticed for Archaeology, and when the two key elements —roman spectacle building and church— appear, with few exceptions, they are considered separately in case of being subjected to some kind of study.

RESUMEN: A partir de las ejecuciones de cristianos en edificios de espectáculos romanos, el anfiteatro, como genérico de este tipo de edificios públicos, se convierte en uno de los escenarios paradigmáticos de la identidad cristiana, lo que ayudaría a explicar la aparición, en momentos posteriores a la Paz de la Iglesia, de edificios de culto cristiano de carácter martirial en las arenas de los edificios de espectáculos abandonados o en desuso. El sustrato lúdico de determinados martirios permitió a los hagiógrafos componer relatos con escenarios arquitectónicos de fondo cargados de simbolismo que ayudaron a enfatizar la victoria martirial de los “atletas de Cristo”, lo que contribuiría, en gran medida, a explicar esta ulterior relación entre edilicia cristiana y arquitectura lúdica acaecida a partir de finales del siglo IV e inicios del V y detectada en la topografía tardoantigua y altomedieval de algunas ciudades romanas. Sin embargo, tal asunto pasa relativamente desapercibido a los ojos de la Arqueología, pues cuando aparecen los dos elementos clave —edificio de espectáculos e iglesia—, salvo contadas excepciones, se consideran por separado en caso de ser objeto de algún tipo de estudio.