Imagistic
Analysis
THEA291 Dr. Larsen
1. Some assumptions of imagistic analysis:
Dramas are expressions of
reality, agencies through which the playwright's vision becomes an object an
audience can appreciate intellectually and emotionally. Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof is thus not merely about Brick Pollitt's drinking problem, nor is it
about Maggie Pollitt's sexual frustrations. What is it? What is this particular world like?
2.
CONCEPT: A play is a vision of human life created in the mind of
an auditor by the presentation of patterns of images.
CONCEPT: The experience of a
playwright's vision is a creative act of integration of hundreds of discrete
images suffusing the production.
CONCEPT: The imagery of a
production of a play derives from the imagery contained in the playscript. The
interpreter's task is to discover the images in the playscript and to integrate
them into a commanding image (or sensory metaphor).
CONCEPT: A commanding image
is a likeness of the playwright's vision. The aim of imagistic analysis is to
sense the world as the playwright might have felt it.
CONCEPT: A good production
of any play expresses the playwright's vision in terms comprehensible to a
particular audience.
3. DEFINITION: An image in a playscript is
any descriptive term, adjective or adverb, word or phrase, or the sensual
connotation of nominative and predicative words or phrases. Example: "Sensual
connotation of nominative and predicative words or phrases." A part of the
playwright's setting of Oh Dad Poor Dad... indicates that "a large balcony
juts out over the audience." The structure named (nominative word) is
"balcony." The sensual connotation is slight, but the sense of
elevation is clear. The predicative term, "juts out over" has
powerful sensual connotations of abruptness and violence. The connotation is
clearer if one considers that the balcony could also "bulge," or
thrust," or simply "project." It "juts." The image
helps grasp the threatening, violent quality of Arthur
Kopit's vision as concretized in this play.
4. TECHNIQUE: Images
fundamentally appeal to our senses. The analyst can categorize images
according to each image’s
dominant sensual appeal:
a.
visual: colors, shapes, masses, lines
b.
auditory: tonality of speech as well as sound effects
c.
tactile: textures of scenic surfaces, of costumes and properties
d.
olfactory: odors characteristic of the play’s environment
e. image
of taste: sour sweet, bitter, bland
f.
kinesthetic imagery: movement, gesture, facial expression
The interpreter's grasp of
the playwright's vision is enhanced by answers to three questions:
1.
What is the play about? First consider the story of the play, then what happens
in the play. Finally, consider briefly the structure
or shape of the play.
2.
What is the play's theatrical context? Evidence about the physical form and the
equipment of the theatre for which the play was written, as well as evidence
about the institution of theatre in the playwright's time provide keys to the
playwright’s vision.
3.
What is the play like?
Analysis:
1.
Prepare an analysis of the images of the
study play as a list (see #4). Act III is all I need to see. Though
you will want to look at more than just Act III to get an accurate assessment.
2.
(1 and 2 above) integrate these details with
information about the play's theatrical context and a description of what the
play is about (theoretical metaphor) to
3.
(3 above) create a commanding image that
tells me what the playwright's vision is like. Start the paragraph with Cat is
like_____.
As always, tell
me what you think, why you think so, and prove that it is viable.