Iconography and intertextuality: the dsicreet charm of meaning

Sophia Preston

Iconography and intertextuality: the dsicreet charm of meaning

Sophia Preston

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

I was recently warned by a post-structuralist theatre historian to “Beware meaning for, as Baudrillard says: ‘meaning is the death certificate of Art’.” My methodology for the analysis of dance/music relationships (in which meanings or significances drawn from one dance are allowed to resonate in the interpretation of another) can be seen to reveal an allegiance to ‘bourgeois humanism’ (Eagleton, 1988). Bunuel’s film The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie indicates my probable fate. Using a work by Mark Morris as an example I propose that, taking a Peircean (rather than Saussurean) construction of semiotics, it becomes possible to deal with the contingent meanings that can result from, and contribute to, an ‘open’, intertextual, reading and thereby further the development of dance analysis.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	241-252
Journal	Conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars
Volume	21
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 1998

Bibliographical note

Reference text: Acocella, Joan Mark Morris New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1993
Adams, Martin Henry Purcell Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995
Barthes, Roland S/Z (Translated by Richard Miller) London: Jonathan Cape, 1975
_______ The Pleasure of the Text (Translated by Richard Miller) London: Jonathan Cape, 1976
_______ Image-Music-Text (Essays selected and translated by Stephen Heath) London: Fontana, 1977
Baudrillard, Jean In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities New York: Semiotexte 1983
Baxter, John Bunuel London: Fourth Estate, 1994
Brooker, Peter (ed) Modernism/Postmodernism London: Longman, 1992
Burt, Ramsay The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle Sexualities London Routledge, 1995
Connor Steven Postmodernist Culture: An introduction to theories of the contemporary Oxford: Blackwell, 1989
Eco, Umberto `Postmodernism Irony and the Enjoyable' in Brooker, Peter (ed) Modernism/Postmodernism London: Longman, 1992 pp225-228
Eagleton, Terry ‘Capitalism, modernism and postmodernism’ in Lodge, David (ed) Modern criticism and theory: a reader London: Longman, 1988 pp384-398
Felperin, Howard Beyond Deconstruction: the uses and abuses of literary theory Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986
Fish, Stanley Is there a text in this class?; the authority of interpretive communities Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1980
_______ Interpreting the Variorum in Lodge, David (ed) Modern criticism and theory: a reader London: Longman, 1988 pp310-329
Foster, Susan Leigh Reading Dancing: Bodies and Subjects in Contemporary American Dance Berkeley, University of California Press, 1986
Foster, Susan Leigh (ed) Choreographing History Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995
Foster, Susan Leigh (ed) Corporealities: dancing knowledge, culture and power London and New York: Routledge, 1996
Goellner and Murphy (eds) Bodies of the Text: Dance as Theory, Literature as Dance New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1995
Harris, Ellen Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas Oxford: Clarendon, 1987
Kellner, Douglas Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond Cambridge: Polity Press 1989
Lodge, David The Modes of Modern Writing London: Arnold, 1977
Lodge, David Modern Criticism and Theory: a reader London: Longman, 1988
Mellers, Wilfrid `The Tragic Heroine and the Un-Hero' in Price, Curtis (ed) Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, an opera 1986 pp204 - 213
Morris, Gay "Styles of the Flesh" Gender in the dances of Mark Morris in Morris, Gay (Ed) Moving Words London & New York: Routledge, 1996
Preston, Sophia `Revealing relationships: text and intertext in the analysis of dance/music relationships in the work of Siobhan Davies' Proceedings of the Society of Dance History Scholars Conference, Minneapolis, 1996
Price, Curtis (ed) Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, an opera London: Norton, 1986
Scholes, Robert Structuralism in Literature: An Introduction New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974
Selden, Raman, Widdowson, Peter and Brooker, Peter A reader's guide to contemporary literary theory (4th ed) Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1997
Sheriff, John The fate of meaning: Charles Peirce, Structuralism and Literature Princeton: Princeton UP, 1989

Keywords

Dance Analysis
Mark Morris
"Dido and Aeneas"
Structuralism
Post-structuralism

Cite this

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title = "Iconography and intertextuality: the dsicreet charm of meaning",

abstract = "I was recently warned by a post-structuralist theatre historian to “Beware meaning for, as Baudrillard says: {\textquoteleft}meaning is the death certificate of Art{\textquoteright}.” My methodology for the analysis of dance/music relationships (in which meanings or significances drawn from one dance are allowed to resonate in the interpretation of another) can be seen to reveal an allegiance to {\textquoteleft}bourgeois humanism{\textquoteright} (Eagleton, 1988). Bunuel{\textquoteright}s film The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie indicates my probable fate. Using a work by Mark Morris as an example I propose that, taking a Peircean (rather than Saussurean) construction of semiotics, it becomes possible to deal with the contingent meanings that can result from, and contribute to, an {\textquoteleft}open{\textquoteright}, intertextual, reading and thereby further the development of dance analysis.",

keywords = "Dance Analysis, Mark Morris, {"}Dido and Aeneas{"}, Structuralism, Post-structuralism",

author = "Sophia Preston",

note = "Reference text: Acocella, Joan Mark Morris New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1993 Adams, Martin Henry Purcell Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995 Barthes, Roland S/Z (Translated by Richard Miller) London: Jonathan Cape, 1975 _______ The Pleasure of the Text (Translated by Richard Miller) London: Jonathan Cape, 1976 _______ Image-Music-Text (Essays selected and translated by Stephen Heath) London: Fontana, 1977 Baudrillard, Jean In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities New York: Semiotexte 1983 Baxter, John Bunuel London: Fourth Estate, 1994 Brooker, Peter (ed) Modernism/Postmodernism London: Longman, 1992 Burt, Ramsay The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle Sexualities London Routledge, 1995 Connor Steven Postmodernist Culture: An introduction to theories of the contemporary Oxford: Blackwell, 1989 Eco, Umberto `Postmodernism Irony and the Enjoyable' in Brooker, Peter (ed) Modernism/Postmodernism London: Longman, 1992 pp225-228 Eagleton, Terry {\textquoteleft}Capitalism, modernism and postmodernism{\textquoteright} in Lodge, David (ed) Modern criticism and theory: a reader London: Longman, 1988 pp384-398 Felperin, Howard Beyond Deconstruction: the uses and abuses of literary theory Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986 Fish, Stanley Is there a text in this class?; the authority of interpretive communities Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1980 _______ Interpreting the Variorum in Lodge, David (ed) Modern criticism and theory: a reader London: Longman, 1988 pp310-329 Foster, Susan Leigh Reading Dancing: Bodies and Subjects in Contemporary American Dance Berkeley, University of California Press, 1986 Foster, Susan Leigh (ed) Choreographing History Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995 Foster, Susan Leigh (ed) Corporealities: dancing knowledge, culture and power London and New York: Routledge, 1996 Goellner and Murphy (eds) Bodies of the Text: Dance as Theory, Literature as Dance New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1995 Harris, Ellen Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas Oxford: Clarendon, 1987 Kellner, Douglas Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond Cambridge: Polity Press 1989 Lodge, David The Modes of Modern Writing London: Arnold, 1977 Lodge, David Modern Criticism and Theory: a reader London: Longman, 1988 Mellers, Wilfrid `The Tragic Heroine and the Un-Hero' in Price, Curtis (ed) Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, an opera 1986 pp204 - 213 Morris, Gay {"}Styles of the Flesh{"} Gender in the dances of Mark Morris in Morris, Gay (Ed) Moving Words London & New York: Routledge, 1996 Preston, Sophia `Revealing relationships: text and intertext in the analysis of dance/music relationships in the work of Siobhan Davies' Proceedings of the Society of Dance History Scholars Conference, Minneapolis, 1996 Price, Curtis (ed) Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, an opera London: Norton, 1986 Scholes, Robert Structuralism in Literature: An Introduction New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974 Selden, Raman, Widdowson, Peter and Brooker, Peter A reader's guide to contemporary literary theory (4th ed) Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1997 Sheriff, John The fate of meaning: Charles Peirce, Structuralism and Literature Princeton: Princeton UP, 1989",

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AB - I was recently warned by a post-structuralist theatre historian to “Beware meaning for, as Baudrillard says: ‘meaning is the death certificate of Art’.” My methodology for the analysis of dance/music relationships (in which meanings or significances drawn from one dance are allowed to resonate in the interpretation of another) can be seen to reveal an allegiance to ‘bourgeois humanism’ (Eagleton, 1988). Bunuel’s film The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie indicates my probable fate. Using a work by Mark Morris as an example I propose that, taking a Peircean (rather than Saussurean) construction of semiotics, it becomes possible to deal with the contingent meanings that can result from, and contribute to, an ‘open’, intertextual, reading and thereby further the development of dance analysis.

KW - Dance Analysis

KW - Mark Morris

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KW - Post-structuralism

M3 - Article

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SP - 241

EP - 252

ER -

Iconography and intertextuality: the dsicreet charm of meaning

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Cite this