On the Matter of the Body in Caryl Churchill's <i>Fen</i> from the Perspective of Character Doubling
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- SUZUKI Miho
- 早稲田大学坪内博士演劇博物館
Bibliographic Information
- Other Title
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- キャリル・チャーチル『フェン』における身体をめぐって
- キャリル・チャーチル『フェン』における身体をめぐって : ダブリングという観点から
- キャリル ・ チャーチル 『 フェン 』 ニ オケル シンタイ オ メグッテ : ダブリング ト イウ カンテン カラ
- ―ダブリングという観点から―
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Abstract
<p>This essay explores the matter of the body in Caryl Churchill's Fen by focusing on the use of character doubling. Six actors played twenty-two characters in the first production of Fen. Owing to consecutive short scenes and the frequent change of characters for each actor, the impression created by each character is not very strong. These vague images of characters exhibit the state of their oppressed bodies, exploited and possessed by others in severe labor conditions in capitalistic society. In the last scene, Val, who is the main character killed by her lover, reappears on stage and narrates episodes of the dead. Her narration seems as if she actually sees and penetrates other's pasts and their dreams, which are usually repressed and invisible. Val shows a different state of the body, which unites closely with others and is in opposition to the oppressed body depicted in the scenes before Val's death. At the same time, the theatrical system, in which the character inevitably dominates the actors' body, is reconsidered in the scene as the relationship between the signifier and the signified is disrupted. Thus, the character doubling functions as a theatrical device to represent the state of the oppressed body and simultaneously the different state of the body by figuring the new relationship between the characters and actors.</p>
Journal
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- THEATRE STUDIES Journal of Japanese society for Theatre Research
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THEATRE STUDIES Journal of Japanese society for Theatre Research 56 (0), 77-93, 2013
Japanese Society for Theatre Research
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Details 詳細情報について
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- CRID
- 1390282680742774144
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- NII Article ID
- 130005239964
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- NII Book ID
- AA1173174X
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- ISSN
- 21897816
- 13482815
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- NDL BIB ID
- 024802651
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- Text Lang
- ja
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- Data Source
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- JaLC
- NDL
- CiNii Articles
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- Abstract License Flag
- Disallowed