In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

INTRODUCTION MASITHATHU ZENANI ON STORYTELLING Contemporary images and the physical bodies of the members of the audience are introduced into a closed world of art. Anything considered superfluous by the artist is omitted, as images from the real world dramatically touch ancient images and gestures fertile with compressed experiences . Gesture is now harnessed to thought, to feeling, not to physical action. Gesture now responds to an imaginative story, not to the bewildering open-endedness and uncertainties of the objective world. Already, familiar physical movements are being transformed simply because they occur in new, artistic environments. Life in the world of the imaginative narrative flows evenly and predictably within culturally sanctioned patterns. The artistic experience molds our feelings in youth, organizes them in images, then nourishes and expands those trapped feelings (remembered feelings, mementos of one's artistic and social experiences) as we move beyond youth into adulthood. The narrative experience catches feeling and, engineering it through patterns, gives it meaning. The narratives can have no impact if they are not constructed on and of human feelings: uncertainties, fulfillment, suspense, expectation, hopes, fears. Feelings are held in images and gestures, shaped by patterning which is itself composed of such feeling, then brought into contact with other feelings caught in other images and gestures having to do with characters and actions. In the juxtaposition, feelings are controlled, imbued with message. The ancient, familiar images and patterns give meaning to experience by shaping feelings, by providing order. Images are the repositories of emotion; they evoke, surround, trap feeling. In a performance, the members of the audience are immersed in images. They move through the network of body movements and sounds, and, to an extent, they themselves control this patterning. Nameless and diffuse emotions are tied to patterns and are brought under control through expectation, suspense, fulfillment. In the act of being controlled, the same feelings act as the motor of the tradition; they make the narrative move. All-gestures, movements , images-are constructed of human feelings. A cannibalistic creature evokes and holds a certain feeling. So does the image of a hapless, homeless young mother. Bring the image of the terrified woman, which contains a particular feeling, into narrative relationship with the image of a fantastic cannibal, also evoking a specific feeling, and the artist has already begun to mix and channel emotions, to give feeling form. Simultaneously, the sensations involved in uncom373 Copyrighted Material 374 Part Four: Maturity pleted models continue in the background, so that both feelings are being called forth, the abstract and generalized emotion, and the more particular emotion. This process, of course, becomes exceedingly complex as more and more images are introduced into the performance and as other patterns follow the initial one. Varied patterns may also occur, making the experience ever more intricate. Mrs. Zenani directs the rhythmic movements of the narrative with her hands, her forefingers often outstretched, a supplementary movement when mimetic gestures are not being employed. It is an abstract movement , frequently growing out of very particular, complementary movements . Her hands also act as directors; she moves things about in the space that she has claimed for herself and her performance, an aesthetic space existing in a familiar cultural place. She moves characters into the space, out of this space-characters from the real world, characters from the world of fantasy. She constructs things here, brushes actions into being, burnishes characters, orders complex movements and patterns . Her hands also, usually in abstract fashion, indicate the passage of time. Complementary gestures become more important as she herself takes on the roles of the characters. She points to the various personae, gives directions, alludes to things that are outside the range of her charted territory. She reveals the dimensions of people, things, sketches in the contours of events. When the attention is on a character, she becomes that character, gives it flesh and breath. When she is not performing the actions of a character, she assumes the role of storyteller; it is in this role that she moves things, people, and events about her space. At times, she is both simultaneously-commenting on the action at the same time that she is depicting it. These two roles define the artist's functions in the performance, and this dual role distinguishes gestures and body movements also. When she is acting out a character, her gestures are primarily complementary; as the storyteller, she is more apt to use symbolic and abstract gestures and movements. There is a full...

Share