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The concept of theatricality has taken many forms during its history, and—perhaps because of this—its meaning may seem difficult to grasp when one is to make a theoretical approach to the field. Often theatricality shows itself as a metaphorical relationship between the theater and the world. The Shakespearean metaphor "all the world's a stage" (87) is an expression of this. With this as a point of departure, I will read some theatrical phenomena metaphorically, as "metaphorical structures," to see if the well developed theories on metaphor can help us better understand the concept of theatricality. The thesis of this paper can be summed up in the following analogy: theatricality relates to real life in the same way that the metaphor relates to literal language.
Comparing mankind to marionettes directed by the Gods, Plato already saw similarities between the world and the stage (644-45, 803). This notion became even more popular throughout the Christian Middle Ages: the world is a theater, and God its director and spectator. According to Thomas Hobbes it is no more than an illusion to believe that there is any difference between expressing one's personality and playing a role. He reminds us that the word "person" is actually nothing but a dead metaphor, which originally—pre-metaphorically—meant "mask:"
Persona in Latin signifies the disguise, or outward appearance of a man, counterfeited on the Stage; and sometimes more particularly that part of it, which disguiseth the face, as a Mask or Visard: And from the Stage, hath been translated to any Representer of speech and action, as well in Tribunals, as Theaters. So that aPerson, is the same that an Actor is, both on the Stage and in common Conversation; and to Personate, is to Act, or Represent himself, or an other... (217)
In modern times theatricality has often been defined in opposition to something else. Thus, according to Vsevolod Meyerhold, theatricality is the opposite of naturalist theater; according to Roland Barthes it is everything in the theater that is not text, and according to Michael Fried, theatricality is the antithesis of modernist painting. How then can we know that these peopleare writing about the same concept?
One way to answer this question could be to regard theatricality as a relation rather than a quality....