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SASKIA FISCHER
actions have a symbolic meaning and are performed as significant gestures.
Likewise, the Bible is held up high for all to see in the Roman Catholic Mass.
It is not just a book; it is a sacred text that deserves special awe and attention.
The outstanding status of the Bible is indicated by the theatrical way in which
it is staged (you have to literally look up to it, and it is addressed as a “holy
text,” “the word of God”). As a result, rituals mark themselves out as striking
and important actions that differ from everyday life while also gaining a spe¬
cial kind of seriousness and solemnness. This way, both religious and profane
rituals emphasize what is of particular importance to the social group or com¬
munity (such as a person, a value, an event, a myth, etc.) and should possess
great significance and authority.’
Rituals are, furthermore, practices that open up symbolic dimensions of
meaning, which are not only represented in the ritual but are created in the
process of its performance. It is the arts — the choir singing, the artistic
decoration (e.g., images, clothing, and props), the choreography of movements
— incorporated in a ritual causing an intense effect of “transcendence,” mean¬
ing, or community. One can describe rituals themselves as great works of art,
which develop their effect on their participants through an artistically elabo¬
rated, and thus an emotional and sensual experience.® Therefore, the meaning
of rituals cannot be understood simply by a “subtext” or cognitive interpreta¬
tion. Rather, rituals are performative practices in a very fundamental sense?
It is particularly interesting for the question ofthe relationship between ritual
and art, in which rituals unfold their social function as symbolic and aesthetic
practices. This is one of the central arguments of Wolfgang Braungart’s work
on ritual and literature.’° Since rituals address their participants emotionally
with their elaborative form and even involve them physically, they can lead to
an intensive, integrative, and community-building effect.
Second: In what Way are Theater and Drama Strongly Related to Rituals?
The main attributes of rituals outlined above — such as repetition, a formally
structured and standardized process, performativity, significance, self-refer¬
entiality, an elaborated aesthetical and symbolic presentation, a deliberated
staging, as well as the social impact of rituals as symbolic and communicative
actions — are also constitutive for drama and theater. This highlights that
theater and drama are fundamentally related to ritual practice.
See my definition in Fischer: Ritual und Ritualität, 28-32; Wolfgang Braungart: Ritual und
Literatur, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 1996; Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger: Rituale, Frankfurt a. M./
New York, Campus, 2013.
Martin Mosebach: Häresie der Formlosigkeit: Die römische Liturgie und ihr Feind, München,
Rowohlt Taschenbuch, 2012.
On the wide-ranging significance of the performative in a ritual see Fischer: Ibid., 28-32.
Braungart: Ritual und Literatur.
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