The main purpose of the current paper is to provide a brief response to the article written and further published by Erika Fischer-Lichte under the title “Theatre and the Civilizing Process: An Approach to the History of Acting”. Prior to discussing the details of the article, it is worth defining that the overall narration and language of the article appears to be more journalistic rather than scientific, which seems to be rather strange taken into consideration the fact that the author of the discussed article aimed to prove that there is an undeniable and undoubtful connection between the history of acting and the history of Western culture. In other words, more scientific approach towards the topic and the overall narration would be more suitable and more beneficial.
Further, the article also lacks consistency in its analysis even from journalistic point of view, as the author only discusses the details and peculiarities of ways of acting during each of the chosen time periods emphasizing that initially acting was supposed to represent idealistic figures teaching the societies specific cultural norms and further changing to modern and post-modern methods of acting focusing more on various symbols and specific traits of emotions instead (Fischer-Lichte). However, the author forgets mentioning the social representation of these changes; instead, she discusses the social meanings of the ways of acting during specific time periods. It is worth stating in this regard that the overall evolutional process of societies even in cultural terms is determined by the development or changes or dynamics in cultural traits, in particular, the ways of theatrical acting. The author still avoids discussing the reasons for these changes, both in cultural and social terms. In addition, she does not use a specific set of characteristics and factors further used for adequate and efficient comparison of those time periods.
Therefore, it is worth concluding that the article by Fischer-Lichte represents a rather interesting and valuable piece of information for giving brief introduction to three fundamental eras of theatre that are considerably different from each other. However, due to the previously mentioned peculiarities of the publications, the social aspect of those changes still remains rather uncertain. In other words, for a reader to understand the deep meaning of the changes in ways of acting during the depicted periods of time, it would require for him or her to dig deeper in historical and social aspects of those time periods.
Works Cited
Fischer-Lichte, Erika. "Theatre And The Civilizing Process: An Approach To The History Of Acting". The Show And The Gaze Of Theatre. Erika Fischer-Lichte. 1st ed. The University of Iowa, 1997. Print.
