From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play

by Victor Turner

How is social action related to aesthetics, and anthropology to theatre? What is the meaning of such concepts as "work," "play, "liminal," and "flow"? In this highly influential book, Turner elaborates on ritual and theatre, persona and individual, role-playing and performing, taking examples from American, European, and African societies for a greater understanding of culture and its symbols.

Genres: Anthropology, Theatre, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Religion, Psychology, Academic

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1982

About the author

Victor Witter Turner was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals, and rites of passage. His work, along with that of Clifford Geertz and others, is often referred to as symbolic and interpretive anthropology.

Reviews

[David Withun]

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[Blabblasar]

Turner poteva di certo sfoltire il testo e anziché scrivere 20 volte le stesse cose in maniera diversa (cosa che crea non poca confusione), avrebbe potuto scriverle una volta sola, in un unico capitolo. Niente a togliere al suo lavoro, sicuramente interessante, però certe volte bisognerebbe far scrivere alla gente che sa scrivere e lasciare i filosofi del cazzo a filosofeggiare nella cameretta. Conclusone: il liminale e il liminoide potrebbe infilarseli su per il culo, che dopo 200 pagine di ripetere le stesse cose non ho ancora capito cosa vogliano dire, PD.

[Phillip]

Turner's ideas about the role of ritual in everyday life were interesting. They seem in some ways a precursor to the performative theories of people like Judith Butler, but Turner (as a cultural anthropologist/sociologist) is less focused on the construction and performance of individual identities and more interested in how theatrical rituals construct communities in "tribal or agrarian societies" with liminal rituals--rituals which are important in constituting a community and which are central to structuring the identities of every member of the community. In contrast to this are liminoid rituals, in which participation is optional or elective, and which may be constitutive of the identities of small groups within a large society, but not of the entire culture itself.

[John Carter McKnight]

Some fascinating and provocative ideas, particularly his concept of "social drama" as a core narrative manifested in forms ranging from Greek tragedy to the litigation process.

Unfortunately, this little book is a brutal, jargon-filled read, a collection of essays only loosely connected and edited together. It's also deeply rooted in 1970s academic and cultural debates that are difficult to follow for readers not well grounded in the bitter mess of the discipline of anthropology in that era. The chapter on students acting out his ethnographic work was thin to the point of gaseousness and seemed to add little but self-congratulation.

[xenia]

What the hell, where is the materialist analysis? How can you talk about rituals without considering the differential roles people are forced into depending on their class, gender, race, sexuality, and so on? This is the most generalised, non-intersectional take of ritual and play I've read. Sure, it's good to develop a general framework to understand social dramas, but fucking hell, it's like every subject mentioned is just a blank body (over here, over there, but otherwise, nowhere). There's even one part near the end where the Olympic Games are called humanistic. Yeah sure, a great fucking ritual that's displaced poor communities and laden numerous countries with debt; a Hellinistic spectacle that's run by Coca-Cola, McDonald's, petrochemical and car manufacturers, and banks with investments in military technologies.

Fuck, I hate this apolitical liberalism that doesn't take a stand on anything and yet nevertheless presents itself as something progressive. Yes the body matters in ritual, but that ritual takes place in a greater political space, and if that political space isn't analysed, then all knowledge generated is merely indicative. It's just another referent in a system of positive phenomena. The point of critical thinking is to move beyond this. It is to take a fucking stand on the societies and cultures we are analysing, so that they may be transformed. Without transformation, knowledge is dead weight, inconsequential tidbits of data that fascinate, and in fascinating, steal the life out of us, bit by bit, until all we see is exactly all there is. A changeless eternity of dispossession. Headless rampant capital, patriarchy and white supremacy.

[Amber Manning]

This ends up feeling pretty dated but is still really interesting. I wonder what Turner would make of the way "liminal"--the term--is thrown around in academic discourse, particularly as he traces play through the liminoid...

[quinoa]

If you wish to spay or geld religion first remove its rituals, its generative and regenerative processes,

[Egle Sipaviciute]

Very intresting and well written making difficult terms and ideas easy to understand.

[Luka]

In particular his essay on liminality - insightful towards how the world should be viewed.

[Sam Funk]

Thought provoking theatre theory! What else is there to say?

[Cory]

You may have seen the movie version.

[Robert]

liminal liminoid social drama -> stage drama etc. I was introduced to this book by Ricardo Dominguez. Has a lot of intresting ideas about performance. This is one to keep on the shelf as a reference.

[Tola Carter]

no rating, read it for my performing arts degree. This book was really helpful for an essay I wrote on limbic space.