Philosophy and drama
pp. 203-220
in: Barry Stocker, Michael Mack (eds), The Palgrave handbook of philosophy and literature, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
Drama is a text written for performance. How do performances, which are particular and unstable, shape drama as a text? What is the relationship between the text and the performances it intends to generate? The testimonies of playwrights articulate what writing for performance means, which considerations guide the composition of such texts, and how do such considerations influence the character of dramatic texts. I examine the authority that drama has over performance by focusing on two analogies used in contemporary philosophical debates. The choice of analogy itself shapes our way of thinking about the relationship between texts and their implementation in performances. Finally, I turn to drama as a practice of writing for audiences, rather than readers, analyzing the activity that drama performs in addressing audiences.