Zbornik Radova Akademije Umetnosti (Jan 2020)
Against connotation mania: A contribution to the sociology of theater
Abstract
Patrice Pavis in his lexicographical definition of the term semiology from 1980, as one of the methodological warnings emphasizes the caution against falling into connotation mania, that is, that interpretive position where every theatrical sign can mean anything. Although Pavis intervened in the then semiotic debates about the nature of the theatrical sign, the warning can be extended by analogy to the entire period of postmodern theater, or in now classical terminology, to postdramatic theater as such. This paper will show how connotation mania can be avoided by reviving the somewhat stagnant sociology of theater. More precisely, following Löwenthal's approach, the conceptualization of the social aesthetics of theater will be advocated, which, with the help of the historical grounding of insights, will make it possible to avoid the impasse into which the propensity for endless semiosis inevitably leads us.
