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SASKIA FISCHER
of compelling seriousness,” and they must avoid irony and criticism."" When
performing a ritual, due to its stylized performance, the participants are al¬
ways aware that, in the broadest sense, they are taking part in a theatrical
performance and playing a certain “role.” But rituals move within a frame of
concrete function and pragmatism, which is non-negotiable and which fun¬
damentally determines their performance. According to Barbara Stollberg¬
Rilinger, a ritual is not only a descriptive model of social order but must also
be seen as a prescriptive model for reality.'” In contrast, theater and drama
have much greater freedom to cope with reality and can use theatricality for
criticism of what is brought to the stage and how it is presented. Brecht’s epic
theater, which constantly points out that it is theater, aims to createa distance
for the audience, and in doing so, makes subversive use of theatricality. Such
a way of staging, where the performance itself is put into question, would
make the ritual fail.'$ In summary, it can be said that theater and ritual are
determined by the different contexts in which they take place and by the dif¬
ferent communicative rules they follow. I, therefore, understand the concepts
of “rituality” and “theatricality” as flexible, dynamic categories that can exceed
and intertwine “ritual” and “theater,” and that can be applied to various cul¬
tural actions and practices. Rituality and theatricality measure the similarity
of a cultural practice toward a ritual or a theater performance. Rituals can be
highly theatrical and still remain a ritual in the first place, as the staging of a
play can be very ritualistic in its style of performance without transforming
into a ritual. But rituality and theatricality can unfold much more openly and
self-critically in theater than would ever be possible in a ritual. At the same
time, however, theater can intentionally make us forget the difference between
theater and ritual through an aesthetic form strongly influenced by a ritualistic
style of performance.
Fourth: The Category of Poetic Rituality
As I have pointed out, theater and drama are deeply related to ritual prac¬
tice. But to speak of poetic rituality — a category I have developed in former
studies"? — the great proximity of a piece of art to a ritual practice has to be
emphasized by the work of art itself. That means: poetic rituality describes
1° Walter Burkert: Opferritual bei Sophokles. Pragmatik — Symbolik — Theater, AU. Der Alt¬
sprachliche Unterricht. Antike Religion 2 (1985), 5-20, 20.
Stollberg-Rilinger: Rituale.
Turner’s difference between ritual and theater being mostly neglected, especially in theater
studies. Erika Fischer-Lichte for instance develops on the basis of Victor Turner’s studies a
very broad concept of ritual that makes ritual and theater indistinguishable. (See Fischer¬
Lichte: Theater und Ritual.) But it is crucial to acknowledge that the self-reference of the
aesthetic of ritual is not the same as the self-critical approach to the use of ritual and rituality
that is possible in a theater play.
1 Fischer: Ibid.
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