How to freeze acting? The interplay of word and picture in representing dramatic art, exemplified by Rilke's poem "Bildnis" ("Portrait") on Eleonora Duse
LISBOA, 3ª feira, 30 de Setembro de 2008, 18h30, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas, sala 133
Rüdiger Singer, Universität Göttingen
The 150th birthday of Eleonora Duse at October 3th 2008 gives reason to commemorate the dramatic art of this great Italian actress. But what is the possible meaning of "commemorating" in this case? Does it include "remembering"? Assumingly, there is nobody alive who eye-witnessed the Duse's acting, nor are there cinematic representations of her dramatic art. Thus, Schiller's remark "For the mime, posterity entwines no garlands" ("Dem Mimenflicht die Nachwelt keine Kränze") emphasising the fugitive quality of dramatic art, seems to be pertinent here.
On the other hand, Schiller's claim stands in sharp contrast with a great variety of textual and pictorial efforts (starting by the middle of the 18th century) to preserve the essence of eminent actor's dramatic art to posterity. These efforts were partly considered as a competition in the tradition of the old 'agon' between literatur and graphic art, partly as an interplay of two arts trying to represent another art in a systematic position between them. As the title of Rilke's poem "Bildnis" ("Portrait") on Eleonora Duse already suggests, the text is a fine example of the last notion. I will argue that Rilke refers to an already well-established Duse-iconology, manifest in (photo)graphic, but also literary representations like theatre reviews or d'Annunzio's novel "Fuoco" ("Fire").