LA FONCTION MYTHIQUE DES ARTS DU SPECTACLE : L’IDENTITÉ DIASPORIQUE ET LA PRODUCTION ARTISTIQUE INTERCULTURELLE
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Navrotskaya, Anna E
- Graduate Program:
- French
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 01, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Prof. Jean-Claude Vuillemin, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Prof. Jean-Claude Vuillemin, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Prof. Monique Yaari, Committee Member
Dr. Heather McCoy, Committee Member
Prof. Jonathan Eburne, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Performance
myth
art
creativity
intercultural artistic production - Abstract:
- The dissertation proposes a new concept of the “mythical function.” An activity assumes this function as its main role within a culture when it takes place in a liminal space. In such a space, the normative behavior is temporarily suspended and thus an inventive mode of perception and creation is activated. I define this mode as “mythical” following Yuri Lotman’s notion of myth, and argue that it is a constitutive part of the human mode of encountering alterity. Performing arts, and especially live theater, carry this function in the contemporary world—a function that demands the ability to improvise, to modify one’s behavior, and to communicate in the absence of strictly codified rules of conduct. My propositions are derived from both theoretical and applied domains. The main subject of the dissertation—the mythical mode of perception expressed in artistic production in-between cultures as directly related to everyday creation of the self—is pertinent to multiple fields: performance studies, theater and film, philosophy and anthropology. This model permits the application of theoretically derived concepts while heeding the voice of art practitioners as it comes across in direct observations and meetings. Two applied cases that support my theoretical propositions represent two immigrant artistic communities: Russian filmmakers in Montreuil in the interwar period of the twentieth century, and musicians and storytellers from French speaking Africa and Maghreb in contemporary Toulouse. In addition to their role as practical applications, these cases bring a comparative value to the study, for they represent different art forms and historical conditions.