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DIFFERENT THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF DEs — SURVEY OF LITERATURE Both Cooper*” and Katafiasz*** state that there is a metonymical structure in work in cathexis, rather than a symbolic or metaphorical one. This is important because it means that the objects are actually parts of what they embody in meaning, but when their meaning is changed the whole situation needs to be re-evaluated, because the meaning of one part of it change. Cooper claims that it is important that DEs are part of larger stories, and summarises that a DE “ruptures, but does not interrupt the story, enough to surprise us and create a gap for reflection and analysis". David Davis also points out that DEs are not randomly selected moments that are made strange in some way, but structure the plays as they “all relate to the centre of the play and make a meta-text”.?” He argues that Bond’s work is focussed on how culture and ideology influence individuals thinking and claims that Bond “works against this control by moving us outside the domination of language by focussing the audience’s attention onto objects and situations which can create Theatre/Drama events and onto the ‘invisible object’”.?” Davis also offers examples of DEs based on Bond’s writing and these offer a useful insight into his analysis. One of the examples is from the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, looking at the moment when she decides to burn the manuscript of the book written by her former lover which, if published, would probably threaten Hedda’s husband’s professional position and also their financial situation and social position. Bond suggests that to find the DE the actress could start to throw the sheets into the fire and then as she is doing so, read a page and want to read on but find she has thrown the next page on to the fire. She retrieves it but it is burning. The skill of the actor here would be to find the Invisible Object, the reflection of bombed cities or crematoria: burning the book has consequences for humanity, and this would be first shown in the sudden inexorable re-emergence of humanness in Hedda Gabler. If she burns her fingers without noticing it to start with, because she is suddenly so intent, caught up in really reading for the first time what she is destroying, then you might have the burning cities and crematoria.*” Davis suggests that the DE can be created by the actor showing the contradictions of the action within the situation. The consequences of burning the book are also shown as a part of the action, the knowledge contained in the book and the impact it could have is also lost to society. 32 Ibid. #3 Katafiasz: Stop Acting. Cooper: The performer in TIE, 138. 3% Davis: Edward Bond and Drama in Education, 170. 3% Davis: Commentary, xxviii. 397 Ibid., xlviii. 394 + 99 +
