Oldal 96 [96]
OCR
ENIKŐ SEPSI concrete programs. Given that, we must be wary of emptying the concepts of meaning via overuse. Better to leave the prayers empty space, the plunge to the earth, the possibility of humilitas humana. RITE AND THEATER: RITUALS IN VALERE NOVARINA’S WORKS To provide an overview of the different connections between emptying and ritual for the analysis of Novarina’s theater, I call on not only the classics (Gluckman, van Gennep, Turner) but also Artaud, who calls theater spatial poetry that uses language metaphorically: it exchanges everyday meaning for another one.” Developing the thought further with Richard Schechner, we can also say that in theater, “real events” are revealed as metaphors fundamentally tied to rites.** The poetic ritual of art goes further to become self-reflexive, selfquestioning. The spectator approaches this self-enclosing object anamorphically, when it is a matter of ritual. In other words, it is only in being immersed in the rite that certain meanings become visible. In his essay Les Rites de passage Max Gluckman illuminates the terminological confusion surrounding the concept,** whose solution he sees in the creation of a concept of rite in which its exemplars relate to intangible meanings.” Van Gennep’s well-known schematic describes the structure of rites of transition, in which the fundamental aim of transitional rites is to assist and ensure some change of state; its process can be divided into three episodes: rites separating from the earlier world are preliminary, the rites of the transitional stages are liminal, and the rites of acceptance into the new world he terms postliminal." This scheme accurately depicts Novarina’s circular dramaturgy, which traverses three stages, overturning an initial state and then building upon its recurrence in a new, transformed condition. Victor Turner further develops van Gennep’s scheme,” revealing the peculiarities within each stage in the form of their main characteristics. A new concept, communitas, signals the elevated ego-state, the achievement of a higher-level I-Thou relationship, during the course of which, connecting to the liminal state, people are denuded of their earlier selves and encounter 2 Artaud: Thédtre oriental et thédtre occidental, 112. Richard Schechner: From Ritual to Theatre and Back: The Efficacy-Entertainment Braid, in Essays on Performance Theory 1970-1976, New York, Drama Book Specialists, 1977, 74. Max Gluckman: Les Rites de passage, in M. Gluckman — D. Forde (eds.): Essays on the Ritual of Social Relations, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1962, 20-22. 25 Ibid., 22. Arnold van Gennep: The Rites of Passage, Routledge Library Editions, Anthropology and Ethnography (Paperback Reprint ed.), Hove (East Sussex, UK), Psychology Press, 1977 [1960]. 27 Ibid. + 94 e
