International Students' Seminar
Myth and Archetypes, and their Workings in Drama
as part of RHAPSODY 2019
as part of RHAPSODY 2019
26-27 February
Myths and archetypes have always fascinated humankind because of their potential to awaken us to the pre-eminence of signs and symbols. Anthropological and psychological studies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century sparked the beginning of archetypal criticism that focused on interpretation of recurring patterns of myths and archetypes. In the context of literary criticism, myth may be defined as “one story in a system of hereditary stories of ancient origins which were once believed to be true” (M. H. Abrams). Myths help us understand the world: social customs, sanctions and rules that govern our lives. Abrams’s definition of archetypes complements his definition of myth, wherein he explains them as “recurrent narrative designs, patterns of actions, character types, themes and images.”
The origin of
drama, both Western and Indian, can be traced to myth
and its concomitant ritual.
While Western classical drama has its origin in the religious festival of
Dionysus, Natyashastra gives a mythological account of the origin of drama.
Archetypal patterns – death-rebirth, the journey underground, the heavenly
ascent, the quest for holy grail, the Paradise-Hades image, the Promethean
rebel, the earth goddess, the fatal woman, the trickster, the mother, the old wise
man, to enumerate a few – are identifiable in drama from ancient to contemporary
times. Modern dramatists George Ryga, Wole Soyinka, Jack Davis and Derek
Walcott have explored myths and traditional archetypes to visibilise the
intersection of power, empire and nation formation through drama. In
post-independence India directors such as K.N. Panikkar, Girish Karnad and
Ratan Thiyam experimented with a theatre that was aesthetically and visually
distinct from westernised theatre of the colonial era by reviving ancient myths
and archetypes. This movement “offered a strategy for reassessing colonial ideology
and culture and for articulating and defining a newly emerging ‘India’” (Erin
Mee).
Contemporary performance theories alert us to the scope of drama by theorising performance as ritual. For instance, Richard Schechner describes performance as “ritualised behaviour conditioned or permeated by play”. According to him “play gives people a chance to temporarily experience the taboo, the excessive, and the risky…You may never be Oedipus or Cleopatra, but you can perform them ‘in play’.” In Schechner’s formulation “ritual and play lead people into a ‘second reality’, separate from ordinary life” and “when they temporarily become or enact another, people perform actions different from what they do ordinarily.” This results in the transformation of the individual “either permanently or temporarily”.
Thus the potential of drama as a powerful mode of change and the special role myths and archetypes play in actualising it constitute an important field for academic investigation in contemporary times. The proposed seminar aims to excavate and explore myth and archetypes in the participatory art of drama and especially their transformative role in social discourses of gender, class, and caste.
Contemporary performance theories alert us to the scope of drama by theorising performance as ritual. For instance, Richard Schechner describes performance as “ritualised behaviour conditioned or permeated by play”. According to him “play gives people a chance to temporarily experience the taboo, the excessive, and the risky…You may never be Oedipus or Cleopatra, but you can perform them ‘in play’.” In Schechner’s formulation “ritual and play lead people into a ‘second reality’, separate from ordinary life” and “when they temporarily become or enact another, people perform actions different from what they do ordinarily.” This results in the transformation of the individual “either permanently or temporarily”.
Thus the potential of drama as a powerful mode of change and the special role myths and archetypes play in actualising it constitute an important field for academic investigation in contemporary times. The proposed seminar aims to excavate and explore myth and archetypes in the participatory art of drama and especially their transformative role in social discourses of gender, class, and caste.
We invite original papers on the topic “Myth
and Archetypes, and their Workings in Drama” from undergraduate and postgraduate
students as well as researchers from colleges and universities.
Papers may be on but not restricted to any
of the following sub-themes:
·
Ancient, folk and ritual drama:
form, themes, and contemporary performances
·
Dance drama: form, content and
contemporary performances
·
Myth, myth-making, and
archetypes in modern and contemporary drama
·
Historical events as archetypes
in drama
·
Dalit and feminist reworking of
myths and archetypes
·
The use of myth and archetypes
in children’s theatre
·
Myth and archetypes in a
theatre of subversion
·
Contemporary activist
appropriations of myths and archetypes
·
Significance of innovative
techniques of stagecraft in representing myth and archetypes.
Abstracts (of maximum 200 words) must
be emailed to elszhdcm@gmail.com latest by 25 November 2018.
Important Details:
Ø Last Date for Abstract Submission: 25
November 2018
Ø
Intimation of Acceptance: 01 December 2018
Ø
Last Date for submission of
full length papers (not more than 3000 words): 20 January 2019
Ø
Participants will get 15
minutes to present their papers. Registration will be free for all
participants.
Ø
Best paper awards will be given
in the following categories:
Category 1: Bachelor and Masters students
Registration is free. Please note that no TA/DA will be paid to
participants. Refreshments and certificates will be provided to all
participants.
Further queries may be directed to:
Ms. Rashmi Govind at elszhdcm@gmail.com.