EAP - Trames Publications

PUBLISHED
SINCE 1997

TRAMES. A Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences

ISSN 1736-7514 (Electronic)
ISSN 1406-0922 (Print)

Open Access Journal

CiteScore: 0.8

Impact Factor (2022): 0.2

STEREOTYPES AND CULTURAL MEMORY: ADAPTATIONS OF OSKAR LUTS’S SPRING IN THEATRE AND FILM; pp. 309–318

PDF | doi: 10.3176/tr.2008.3.06

Author

Anneli Saro

Abstract

The article is focused on stereotypes as cognitive phenomena, as well as on cultural mechanisms of representation and memorization, by studying their formation, petrifaction and decomposition more broadly in culture, and more specifically in theatre and film. For an empirical example, I draw on the Estonian novel Spring by Oskar Luts, and on its adaptations in theatre and film. Theatre as an art form is constituted by two specific conditions: firstly by a performance, which is connected with the performer’s body; and secondly by the presence of the spectator. In the performative arts, artefacts lack a material carrier; the primary carrier of a production is human memory. Theatre can thus be considered an art of memory – an art of remembering, recalling, reminiscing and reiterating. Such repetitions give rise to phenomena which can be called stereotypes. Performances function as special storehouses and recreational tools of stereotype and identity, simultaneously reinforcing and challenging personal and collective memories.

References

Abadi Ghadim, A. K., D. J. Pannell, and M. P. Burton (2005) "Risk, uncertainty, and learning in adoption of a crop innovation". Agricultural Economics 33, 1, 1-9. Barthes, Roland (1970) Mythologies. Paris: Seuil.

Browne, Ray B. (2005) Profiles of popular culture. Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.

Burke, Peter (2003) "History as social memory". In his Varieties of cultural history, 43-59. Ithaca and New York: Cornell University Press.

Carlson, Marvin (2003) The haunted stage: the theatre as memory machine. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Epner, Luule (2002) "Tagasi Kevades". [Back in "Spring".] Teater. Muusika. Kino (Tallinn) 5, 13-22.

Fiske, Susan T. and Shelley E. Taylor (1991) Social cognition. New York and Toronto: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Kott, Jan (1992) The memory of the body. Evastone, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Lotman, Juri (1992) "Neskol'ko myslei o tipologii kul'tur". Izbrannye stat'i I. Stat'i po semiotike i tipologii kul'tury, 102-109. Tallinn: Aleksandra.

McConachie, Bruce A. (1992) Melodramatic formations: American theatre and society, 1820-1870. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

Moscovici, Serge (1984) "The phenomenon of social representation". In Social representations, 24-43. Robert M. Farr and Serge Moscovici, eds.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rapport, Nigel and Joanna Overing (2000) Social and cultural Anthropology: the key concepts. London and New York: Routledge, 2000

Tormis, Lea (2006) "Voldemar Panso - traditsioon ja/või avangard?" [Voldemar Panso - tradition and/or avant-garde?]. In her Teatrimälu, 217-233. [Memory of theatre.] Tartu: Ilmamaa.

Undusk, Jaan (1987). "Melanhoolne Luts: "Kevade"". [Melancholic Luts and his "Spring".] Keel ja Kirjandus (Tallinn) 1, 25-35.

Back to Issue