Drama, Brecht, and Alienation
THIS IS A FINAL PAPER. THIS IS A FINAL PAPER. THIS IS A FINAL PAPER.
Liminality is a term used extensively by
Victor Turner as a means of identifying the circular sense of causality that
exists within the public experience; communication is therefore comprised of
various codes and symbols, and what the public perceives of as being
“performance” is ultimately an active integration of these codes through a
constructed frame (as discussed earlier). In Frame, Flow, and Reflection: Ritual and Drama as Public Liminality,
Turner immediately asserts in the essay’s introduction that, “…without too much
exaggeration, liminal phenomena are at the level of culture what variability is
as the level of nature” (466). The liminal can ultimately be received as “the
transitional;” the transition that occurs between moments of constructed drama
is then effectively equated to moments of ecological, biological, or
sociological transformation that occur in nature. The very language of this
analogy seems to regard what Turner refers to as “public reflexivity” as an
entirely natural occurrence, and yet there is a distinction made between areas
of typical social activity and the spaces of the ritualistic or the dramatic,
the “liminal spaces,” as Turner phrases it. According to Turner, dramatic
performances hold the potential for collectively shifting the cultural “frame”
that serves as a social interface, of sorts; he states, “…here all is open,
plurally reflexive, the folk acts on the folk and it transforms itself through
becoming aware of its situation and predicament…” (486).
to the flowing nature of the relationship between activity and consciousness, the
sense of self is relinquished not only by the performers, but by the
participating spectators, as well. The frames (social, or otherwise) are
therefore the means by which the flow is transmitted, through which reflection
can then hypothetically occur. Should an “alternate reality” be permitted to
transform the consciousness of the individual, as described by Turner? There
are many individuals, such as famed German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who would
remain ideologically weary of the transformative properties associated with
drama in relation to the human conscience.
THIS IS A FINAL PAPER. THIS IS A FINAL PAPER. THIS IS A FINAL PAPER.
The distancing effect, as described by Brecht, serves to render the audience’sengagement with dramatic works as a purely conscious experience; this method of
performance estranges both its viewers and its players by utilizing specific
methods of framing and theatrical techniques as a means of dissolving any
semblance of a “fourth wall.” Brecht, in contrast to Margaret Morse, remained
highly suspicious of immersive practices in theater. In From Distancing Alienation to Intuitive Naiveté: Bertolt Brecht's
Establishment of a New Aesthetic Category, Karl-Heinz Schoeps clarifies the
directness and livelihood of Brecht’s directorial approach, stating, “…the term
naïve in the Brechtian context does not imply the absence of artistry…this new category was intended to allow critics
and viewers the unencumbered enjoyment of Brechtian theater, without the
constant interposition of epic or alienating glasses” (191). It was not his
intent to remove the constructed-ness of the stage (quite the opposite, really);
Brecht instead sought to explicitly demand the constant recognition of its
presence. Passivity is vilified, and escapism is outright rejected. It is not
hard, then, to imagine a more technologically advanced virtual reality as being
particularly susceptible to the empathetic constructions to which Brecht’s distancing effect was a direct response. In Alienation
Theory in Multi-Media Performance, Josette Féral and Ron Bermingham claim
that the efforts toward alienating the spectator can be recognized without the
players’ physical mediation, and ultimately assert:
“…[the alienation effect] cannot be disassociated from a larger project that aims at
social reform, a project that requires the participation of an informed
spectator interacting with new and imaginative textual material…if either the
social project, the spectator, or the text is missing, the process of
alienation is inoperative” (462).
There are conditions for alienation, as there are conditions for immersion; the
conditions for alienation require mediated engagement with a familiar format,
but the format is presented in an entirely disillusioned manner. To distance
the spectator is really to solicit an entirely different, wholly
unsympathetic means of participation. Technological advancements within the realm of immersive media and virtual reality are providing vastly different perspectives in regards to the relationship that exists between the mind and the body, but
one can now see how the “constant familiarization,” as necessitated by such
technologies, might prohibit free thought in support of a mediated, sympathetic
experience.
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