Deixis and space in drama

Abstract

This article seeks to explore some of the functions of deixis in the delineation of space in drama. The dramatic text addresses a context of performance and, therefore, space depiction is generally regarded as within the province of theatre since the transformation of the hare boards of the stage into other spaces and places calls forth the skills of scenographers, lighting experts, etc. Verbal depictions of space are seen to be best employed in referring to off‐stage space or restricted to reference to objects onstage, when they need to be particularly foregrounded as significant for the onstage action in its relation to the whole. The, basically, onstage/off‐stage division is mapped on to the visual/verbal one so that the visual, onstage space is the main business with verbal references to offstage space backgrounded as a consequence. Deictic phenomena, however, cut across such divisions. Deixis uses the body of participants in speech events as the primary point for calculations of space. The body has access to different channels—visual, auditory, tactile, etc. which deictic usages mobilise. Moreover, from a linguist's point of view, the mode of discourse appropriate to drama is speech since the dialogue presupposes actors on stage interacting with each other, via speech, and not reading texts silently. The voice is the medium of communication, and hence, the body is installed back into the page of the text. Deixis presupposes a corporeal context of utterance with corporeal bodies and channels of communication open for use. This article explores some of the consequences for delineating dramatic space, when the visual/verbal division and its progeny are undercut by the use of deixis.

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