The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama

by Keir Elam

The late twentieth century saw an explosion of interest in semiotics, the science of the signs and processes by which we communicate. In this study, the first of its kind in English, Keir Elam shows how this new 'science' can provide a radical shift in our understanding of theatrical performance, one of our richest and most complex forms of communication.
Elam traces the history of semiotic approaches to performance, from 1930s Prague onwards, and presents a model of theatrical communication. In the course of his study, he touches upon the 'logic' of the drama and the analysis of dramatic discourse. This edition also includes a new post-script by the author, looking at the fate of theatre semiotics since the publication of this book, and a fully updated bibliography. Much praised for its accessibility, The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama remains a 'must-read' text for all those interested in the analysis of theatrical performance.

Genres: Theatre, Semiotics, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 28, 1980

About the author

Currently he is a Professor of English Literature, Faculty of Arts at the University of Bologna, in Italy. He also is Head of Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the same university.

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب با تعریف ساختار تئاتر و تفاوت آن با مفهوم درام شروع میشه و در ادامه انواع نشانه ها در درام با ارائه مثال، معرفی میشوند. بهترین قسمت کتاب، فصل 4 هست که با مثال هایی از اثار کلاسیک ادبیات، ترکیب استفاده از نشانه رو در چارچوب درام توضیح میدهد. خوندن این کتاب به فهم دقیق آثار دراماتیک کمک میکنه و مخاطب تئاتر درک کاملی از کاربرد نشانه(برای بیننده) و چگونگی استفاده از نشانه ها(برای نویسنده و کارگردان) پیدا میکنه.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second Review: Although a lot of what I wrote in my original review is still correct, I think it was somewhat uncharitable. This time I read through the entire book, and while it is an overview of things that are dealt with in more depth in other places. But in fairness, that is pretty much the purpose of the New Accents series. The book presents a wide variety of issues facing the drama theorist, including issues of enunciation, gesture, and both social, theatric, and ideolectic codes. One of the principle points made throughout this book is the number of challenges inherent in semiotic analysis of theatre as live performance, partially because of the singularity of live performance, and partially because of the multiple semiotic codes working simultaneously in theatre.


Original Review: It's more like I stopped reading this than that I actually finished. A drama professor told me that Elam's book is good for what it does, which isn't much. From what I read I agree. From what I read, Elam seems to take the principles of semiotics--which one can get pretty thoroughly from a book like Barthes' Elements of Semiotics--and apply them to the theatre as a complex system of signs borrowing from multiple sub-types of semiotic study (e.g., linguistics, fashion, kinestic studies of posture, gesture, and positioning). But as far as I can tell, other than pointing out that theatre is not a simplistic semiotic discipline, this book doesn't really add much original insight or new information to the field of semiotics or the field of theatre studies.

[Andrea Lupi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short and good methodological introduction on how to read dramatic and theatrical texts

[Ali Sokhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

ویراست کتاب بسیار ازاردهنده س
بسیاری از مطالب کم اهمیت بجای پاورقی در پرانتز های کلافه کننده ای در داخل متن گنجانده شده
که تأثیر محتوی جالب کتاب رو کاهش داده

[امیرمحمد حیدری · Rating 2 out of 5]

به‌عنوان یک کتاب مرجع سطح کیفی خوبی نداشت.

[Marie Trotter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating and thorough application of speech acts theory & semiotics to the world of dramatic performance.

[Salli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pretty clear exposition of the topic. while there were plenty of examples to help understanding I could have done with a few more and found myself a bit lost in places - but the material is very technical and it's hardly a bed time read. My only other comment is, what do we really hope to achieve by studying this stuff? So much of it seems either so obvious or banal or arcane. I don't really see a practical target, though it is all very interesting but, as an old boss said a bit of "fancy that" information.

[Katie]

skim