Interpretation

1. Interpretation
by Louise Douse
Week
3
Analysing
Performance

2. The Essay
In what ways can your chosen practitioners work be
considered postmodern. You should discuss the
chosen work by paying particular attention to:
 The significant signs and key stylistic features of
the work
 The key postmodern themes and/or
characteristics
Week 3
Analysing Performance

3. Interpretation?
Analysing Performance Week 3

4. Interpretation?
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5. Interpretation?
 Interpreting is an active personal process.
Interpreters transact meanings by engaging
strongly with the work and engaging strongly
with their own heritage...
(Preston-Dunlop, V. & Sanchez-Colberg, A. 2002,
p. 17)
Week 3
Analysing Performance

6. Your
argument
[Insert name of work here]
can be considered
postmodern.
Analysing Performance Week 3

7. So, what do
you need to
do to
support this
argument?
Analysing Performance Week 3
Explain what postmodernism is
Articulate the key themes and/or stylistic
features of postmodernism
Identify the key themes of the work
Draw parallels between the relevant
postmodern themes/stylistics and the key
themes/stylistics of the performance

8. Challenging
stereotypes
 Does the play/performance reinforce
or challenge any cultural stereotypes
(gender, class, race, disability)?
 Or comment on any particular form
of oppression?
 Does it challenge common
assumptions about
dance/theatre/performance?
 Or defy interpretation?
 Does it employ juxtaposition or irony?
Analysing Performance Week 3

9. Originality
 Does the play/performance recycle
other cultural material – art, music,
costuming, cultural practices?
 Or draw on other performances,
genres, styles of performance?
 Does it employ intertextuality, parody
or pastiche?
Analysing Performance Week 3

10. Simulation/
technology
 Does the play/performance make
use of technology?
 If so does this have an effect on the
representation of reality?
 Does it make a comment on the use
of social media or other forms of
media?
 Or allude to the construction of
reality?
 Does it employ non-linearity or
fragmentation?
Analysing Performance Week 3

11. What are the stylistic features of Post-
Modernism?
 INTERTEXTUALITY – the meaning of cultural texts produced by the reader as
mosaics or pieces of other pre-existing cultural texts
 PASTICHE – a composition made up of bits of other works or styles, it
celebrates the other styles
 PARODY -work that imitates another work in order to critically comment on
the work itself or the subject of the work.
 IRONY - a gap or incongruity between what a performer or author
says/communicates, and what is generally understood
 JUXTAPOSITION - an act or instance of placing two things close together or
side by side. This is often done in order to highlight contrast and incongruity
 FRAGMENTATION - conscious highlighting of the discontinuous, disparate
elements of the structure
 NON-LINEARITY -events portrayed in a non-chronological manner.
Week 3
Analysing Performance

12. So, what do
you need to
do?
 One paragraph to define
postmodernism and explain the
key ideas
 POINT: Postmodernism is…
 EVIDENCE: Quote from
academically rigorous resource
 EXPLANATION: Explain in own words
Week
3
Analysing
Performance

13. Interpretation
Practising Ideas Approaches to Theory Week 7
• One of the key themes of the work…
• An interpretation of the work…
Point –What is the work about?
• One critic writes, “…” (Ref)
• This is supported by X who states… (Ref)
Evidence – How has it typically been
interpreted?
• This is a key concern of postmodernism because…
Explanation – How do these ideas relate to
postmodernism?

14. What cultural assumptions
are called upon?

15. What seems to be the
preferred reading?

16. How far does this reflect or
depart from dominant
cultural values?

17. How ‘open’ to
interpretation does the sign
seem to be?

18. To what extent do cultural influences
on a choreographer/director and
performer influence their artistic
work?

19. Bibliography
 Elam, K. (2002) The semiotics of theatre and drama. London: Routledge.
 Pavis, P. (2003) Analyzing performance: theater, dance, and film. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press.
 Preson-Dunlop,V. & Sanchez-Colberg, A. (2010) Dance and the performative: a
choreological perspective: Laban and beyond. London: Dance Books.
 Storey, J. (2006) Cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction. Harlow: Pearson
Prentice Hall.
Week 3
Analysing Performance