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JAN L. HAGENS
Before developing my argument further, let me highlight, often with ref¬
erence to Braungart’s writings, some of the core characteristics shared by
ritual and theatrical performance that may help promote positive resolution
to dramatic conflict:
1.) Ritual and theater bring people together. As Braungart states, ritual is
“performed by a community or for a community” and upholds values that
“provide a sense of community and unity.”" The collective playing and watch¬
ing in the theatron, the looking-place, creates a togetherness that presupposes
and supports social belonging. Ritualistic elements in theater can help make it
more participatory, enabling more shared emotion and more empathy. Braun¬
gart mentions the “celebratory, festive nature” of ritual, which may contribute
to positive outcomes, both in ritual and in theater."
2.) Braungart writes that ritual is “aesthetically designed and self¬
referential.”'® Both ritual and theater may exhibit self-referentiality, but, as
must be obvious from my present analysis, I do hold these characteristics to
be primary not so much for ritual as for drama; Braungart himself agrees.’®
Ritual does its work best when it induces a state of participation that merges
on the unconscious, that involves even the subconscious, reaching maybe not
higher, but deeper. In drama, aesthetic self-reference can induce spectatorial
self-reflection, which may then promote the critical distance that allows for
careful conflict resolution. In a best-case scenario, drama’s self-reference can
alleviate pragmatic pressure, allowing for the ideational space and psychologi¬
cal distance that favor conflict resolution.
3.) However, like theater, ritual provides a condensation of past and future
in the present moment; this leads both to an intensification, a heightening of
emotion, and to an essentializing and universalizing.’’ Ritual’s symbols, just
like drama’s “presentative symbolism,” create and convey significance beyond
discursive conceptual meaning.'* The integration of ritualistic elements into
performance may thus bring into reach what otherwise would remain ungrasp¬
able and unrelatable, and it could thus open up new pathways of resolution.
4.) According to Braungart, repetition is another defining feature of ritual.”
Repetition may render a behavior unperceived and unconscious — or it may
put it at a distance, thus allowing for a working-through, to avoid the dead end
of mindless violence and reach positive resolution. Closely related to repetition
is a feature that appears to me to be of crucial importance: the process of ritual
3 Braungart: Ibid., 427, 428.
4° Braungart: Ibid., 427.
15 Ibid.
Braungart: Ritual und Literatur, 220.
For a more elaborate argument regarding the notion that ritual compresses meanings and
heightens emotions, see Stroup: Ritual and Ceremony, 144.
8° Braungart: Ritual, 433; see also Stroup: Ibid., 140-141.
1% Braungart: Ibid., 427.
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