Refine
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (1)
Language
- English (1)
Has Fulltext
- yes (1)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (1)
Keywords
- Indian performing arts (1)
- embodied meaning-making (1)
- emotions research (1)
- gestures (1)
- movement analysis (1)
Institute
Year of publication
- 2019 (1)
Indian dance theatre is known for its extensive and differentiated use of corporeal means to depict any given narrative content in the context of a performance. Its theory (Nāṭyaśāstra, Bharata, ca. 3BC- 5AD) and practise reveal thereby what can be defined as two approaches to meaning, one as evoked through the gestures of the hands, and the other by way of emotive expression, which is also corporeal and gestural, but pertaining to emotional states. These two approaches together offer a comprehensive notion on meaning that leads from linguistic to emotive meaning, and from conceptual to embodied meaning-making processes. And in doing so, they point to the very notion of embodied meaning grounded in movement-based experiences. In particular, meaning evoked by emotional states is given a central place, pointing to a fundamentality of movement-based experiences grounded in emotions for meaning.
Pursuing this question of movement-based experiences grounded in emotions thus indicated from the performing arts perspective is of particular interest, considering it offers insights into the role of both emotions and movement in enabling meaning. Of further interest is how understanding embodied meaning as grounded in movement-based experiences connects and thus contributes to studies addressing this question, such as Linguistic Gestures Studies, Cognitive Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Neuroscience. In particular the form-based linguistic approach to gestural meaning (Müller, 1998, 2009, 2010a/b, 2013), the cognitive linguistic approach to embodied meaning-making (Johnson, 1987, 2007) and brain research on emotions (Damasio, 1999, 2003, 2010) reveal correspondences to the understanding of meaning and its corporeal dimension in the theory and practise of Indian performing arts. These will be laid out in this study. Whereas the role of emotions and movement are referred to in many of these studies, they are not pursued in terms of the movement itself that is considered central. As the perspective provided by a corporeal tradition such as Indian performing arts with its two-fold notion of meaning reveals, movement is a complex theme and needs to be approached in its own terms. Therefore the study aims to take a movement-based approach to address the notion of an embodied meaning and its grounding in embodied experiences. For instance, in instantiating the relevance of movement, also for emotive meaning to emerge, it enables looking beyond the sensorimotor notion of embodied experiences discussed, in particular, in the cognitive take on embodied meaning. At the same time examining the role of felt quality, also discussed thereby, is enabled directly, when looking at actual executed movement.
The study is, thus, a cross-disciplinary empirical analysis of both gestural and emotive meaning based on analysing how these need to be brought forth in movement terms. In doing so it draws from data collected over several years in class, where a movement-analytic approach was applied for teaching the dance theatre tradition of Bharatanatyam. Teaching this in the West triggered the initial interest to delve deeply into the fundamentals of human movement itself. Insights provided by the study of Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals and current research on fascia have been used. These enable not only observation and analysis, but also movement facilitation, which in turn supports the analysis of actual executed movement. The fundamentally movement-based approach, in as much, has implications for Embodiment Studies, Gesture Studies, Cognitive Linguistics, Dance Studies, Movement Studies, Neuroscience Research and finally Cultural Studies. It instantiates, in this sense, how a dialogue between these can take place.