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INTRODUCTION
paths and junctions. Ihat is why Philther oversteps the restricted concept of
positivism and includes the analysis of the history of reception and impact,
in light of Hans-Georg Gadamers realization that the (completely never-to¬
be-known) effect of the "history of effect" (Wirkungsgeschichte) permeates
all understanding, "whether we are expressly aware of it or not", and in this
case, it certainly is not just about the reception of a theatre performance. Since
Philther lays particular emphasis on the “consciousness of being affected by
history (wirkungsgeschichtliches Bewuftsein)”,” the charge of the teleology
of the theatre canon outlined in it, i.e. its understanding as progress, can also
be dismissed.
Although Philther places theatre performances of the present and the past
next to each other, it distinguishes the course of research in their case. While
the analysis of most contemporary productions, usually seen by the researcher
(more than once), is largely based on the rewriting of one's own memories,
the analysis of theatre productions of the recent and distant past, which
cannot be personally experienced, is based on the rewriting (or “weaving
together”) of memories of various media. However, the researcher can only
approach the chosen performance in both cases through his/her own or other
people’s concretization of meaning(s), and both with reservations. Because
of the structure of analysis, the research necessarily has to take into account
whether a film or video recording of the chosen performance is available, but
Philther also seeks to reconstruct performances with no recording at all and/
or with much more sporadic and strenuously accessible documentation. In
case of a performance personally experienced, the recording can reinforce
or revitalize “semantic memory” as a kind of memory aid and can also
refine our “episodic memory”. In case of past performances, it replaces the
memories of our own experience, and becomes only a necessarily partial
document of the performance due to its inability to recall the atmosphere,
the “spatial memory”, the energy flow between the performance space and the
auditorium, etc.”° Through the reflection of its sources and procedures, and
the terminology, theoretical assumptions and strategies of interpretation it
uses, Philther also acts as an imprint of contemporary theatre studies. It starts
from elements of our historical past and assumes chronology, yet the past is
not the basis, since it is approached in accordance with the interpretative
practices and (in case of the website) technical possibilities of the present.
The set of performance reconstructions, also used as contemporary models of
understanding theatre, can be read as separate wholes in a book like this, but
Hans-Georg Gadamer: Truth and Method, Second, Revised Edition, trans. Joel Weinsheimer
— Donald G. Marshall, London — New York, Continuum, 2004, 300.
1 Tbid., 301.
20 Cf. Erika Fischer-Lichte: The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies,
trans. Minou Arjomand, London — New York, Routledge, 2014, 53-54.
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