11.2 Deconstruction and intertextuality in dramatic texts

Deconstruction and intertextuality shake up traditional theatre. They challenge fixed meanings, expose hidden contradictions, and blur lines between texts. These techniques make plays more open-ended, inviting audiences to create their own interpretations.

Postmodern playwrights use these tools to subvert expectations and critique old ideas. By breaking down familiar structures and mixing in references to other works, they create complex, layered performances that keep viewers on their toes.

Deconstruction in dramatic texts

Challenging traditional assumptions

Top images from around the web for Challenging traditional assumptions

• 

  A Principal's Reflections: Tackling the Status Quo View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Collective Experiences, Individual Interpretations | KULT_online View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  A Principal's Reflections: Tackling the Status Quo View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Collective Experiences, Individual Interpretations | KULT_online View original

  Is this image relevant?

1 of 2

Top images from around the web for Challenging traditional assumptions

• 

  A Principal's Reflections: Tackling the Status Quo View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Collective Experiences, Individual Interpretations | KULT_online View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  A Principal's Reflections: Tackling the Status Quo View original

  Is this image relevant?

• 

  Collective Experiences, Individual Interpretations | KULT_online View original

  Is this image relevant?

1 of 2

• Deconstruction is a poststructuralist theory and method of literary analysis that challenges traditional assumptions about the stability and fixed meaning of language and texts
• Identifies and subverts binary oppositions (presence/absence, speech/writing, literal/metaphorical) to reveal inherent instability and contradictions within a text
• Seeks to expose multiple, often conflicting meanings and interpretations derived from a play, challenging the notion of a single, authoritative reading
• Focuses on marginalized, repressed, or excluded elements within the text, highlighting how these elements subvert or destabilize the dominant narrative or themes

Revealing ambiguity and open-endedness

• Application of deconstruction to dramatic texts reveals inherent ambiguity, instability, and open-endedness of language and meaning in theatre
• Deconstructive readings uncover layers of meaning and interpretation, inviting audiences to consider multiple perspectives
• Challenges the idea of a fixed, singular meaning intended by the playwright, instead emphasizing the role of the reader or viewer in constructing meaning
• Highlights the inherent contradictions and paradoxes within a text, demonstrating how meaning is always in flux and subject to reinterpretation

Intertextuality in postmodern plays

Challenging originality and highlighting constructed nature of texts

• Intertextuality refers to the interconnectedness of texts and how they relate to one another through allusions, quotations, parody, or pastiche
• Postmodern playwrights employ intertextuality to challenge the notion of originality and highlight the constructed nature of texts
• Intertextual references range from direct quotations and allusions to other literary works (Shakespeare, Greek mythology) to incorporation of elements from popular culture, history, and mythology
• Creates a layering of meanings and interpretations as the audience considers the relationship between the play and referenced texts

Subverting and critiquing original texts

• Intertextuality serves to subvert or critique the original texts or genres being referenced, often through irony, parody, or pastiche
• Postmodern plays may use intertextuality to deconstruct canonical works, exposing their underlying assumptions, biases, or limitations
• Intertextual references can create a dialogue between the play and its sources, inviting audiences to reconsider their understanding of the original texts
• Analysis of intertextuality reveals how meaning is constructed through the interplay and juxtaposition of different texts and discourses (literary, historical, cultural)

Subversion of traditional structures

Challenging linear narratives and character development

• Postmodern theatre seeks to challenge and subvert traditional dramatic structures and conventions, such as linear narratives, character development, and the fourth wall
• Non-linear or fragmented narratives disrupt traditional cause-and-effect structure and challenge audience expectations (Caryl Churchill's "Top Girls")
• Blurs boundaries between reality and fiction, creating ambiguity or uncertainty that undermines traditional suspension of disbelief
• Subverts traditional character development through creation of unstable, contradictory, or fragmented characters that resist psychological realism or coherence (Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot")

Destabilizing audience-stage relationship

• Challenges traditional relationship between audience and stage by breaking the fourth wall or incorporating interactive or participatory elements
• Postmodern plays may directly address the audience, acknowledging their presence and role in the theatrical experience (Bertolt Brecht's "Epic Theatre")
• Incorporates multimedia elements, non-traditional staging, or site-specific performances to disrupt conventional theatrical spaces and engage audiences in new ways
• Examination of these subversive techniques reveals how postmodern theatre questions and destabilizes assumptions and conventions of traditional dramatic forms

Audience role in meaning creation

Active engagement in interpretation

• Postmodern theatre emphasizes the active role of the audience in creating and interpreting meaning rather than positioning them as passive recipients
• Open-ended, ambiguous, or contradictory nature of postmodern plays invites audience to engage in their own process of meaning-making, drawing on individual experiences, knowledge, and perspectives
• Playwrights deliberately leave gaps or uncertainties in the text, encouraging the audience to fill in these spaces with their own interpretations and associations (Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming")
• Use of intertextuality and subversion of traditional conventions requires audience to navigate and make connections between multiple texts and discourses

Reflecting postmodern skepticism and multiplicity

• The audience's role in creating meaning reflects broader postmodern skepticism towards grand narratives and belief in the multiplicity and subjectivity of truth and meaning
• Postmodern theatre seeks to democratize the interpretive process and challenge traditional notions of authorial control and intention
• Encourages a plurality of interpretations and highlights the inherent subjectivity of the theatrical experience
• Discussing the audience's role sheds light on how postmodern theatre aims to empower viewers as co-creators of meaning and challenges hierarchical relationships between playwright, text, and audience