Theatre Iconography: An Introduction / Erenstein, Robert L.

Erenstein, Robert L., «Theatre Iconography: An Introduction». Theatre Research International, 22,  3, (1997), pp. 185-189

Abstract
Theatre iconography systematically attempts to integrate the pictorial representation of theatre as a vital source of information in researching the history of theatre. Given the primacy of the written word (lógos) in western culture, the status of the illustration as a source of historical research has remained low in the West where it is the norm to give the text priority over illustrations, which serve merely as decorations, to support a conclusion or confirm a statement made in the text. Theatre iconography, however, involves the search for a new dialectical relationship between the written word and the theatre illustration, one in which the illustration is not immediately interpreted as an appendage to a text. It involves an autonomous ‘reading’ of the image in which the use of other documents, preferably from other sign systems, cannot and may not be discounted. The aim here is to study theatre history with the help of tools that are more effective than those used previously.

Other data

ISSN: 1474-0672, 0307-8833
DOI: 10.1017/S0307883300016990
URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-research-international/article/theatre-iconography-an-introduction/72323FE5ECEC62A8E22F33F0191B529E
Language: EN
key: KAJI2FE5