2023 Vol. 14 №2

Expressiveness in the theatre as a meaning-making technology and the role of gestures in its realization

DOI

10.5922/2225-5346-2023-2-4

Pages

67-82

Abstract

The paper examines the concept of multimodal expressiveness contributing to the general study of the expressive and emotive functions in belles-lettres texts. The author attempts to prove that in heterogeneous discourse expressiveness manifests itself as a meaning-making resource responsible for the form-content fusion. The analysis is carried out on the basis of two different kinds of theatrical discourse: theatrical performance and public play-reading. The author turns to theatrical interpretations of the plays by Alexander Vampilov, Alexander Kazantsev, Natalya Sadur, and to two public readings of the play “A man from Podolsk” by Dmitry Danilov, with the total duration of 740 minutes. The focus is on gesture as a pivotal semiotic resource of the theatre. The results of the comparative quantitative analysis show the difference (i) in the gesture patterns and (ii) the frequency of their usage in the two kinds of theatrical discourse. The qualitative results are obtained with the help of the parametric analysis which is a relevant tool for estimating the activity and functions of gestural modality and as such helps to reveal the specificity of meaning construal.

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