Hypnagogia and Imagination: Scenographic Constructions of Venice
Staged Experiences 2019 DOI: 10.1163/9781848883284_002 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key points | Argues that in performance, Venice and Shylock become objects of wishful thinking, constructed through 'hypnagogic imagination' in the spectator's consciousness. Contends that these images do not exist but emerge as real objects, and that Estonian productions over 125 years reflect significant cultural, social, and political shifts. |
Abstract
In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare offers us a complex figure of Shylock: a Jew, a usurer, and a scapegoat. Here, the whole complexity of the disturbing play is inscribed. Against the enigmatic setting of Venice, the figure of Shylock is culturally constructed and offered to the audiences according to the best artistic intentions of the production team. In a different cultural context, the figure can be read in diametrically opposite way. The aim of this chapter is to point out the discrepancies in the imagined nothingness of Shakespeare’s Venice, offering an insight to the apparatus of scenographic imagination with its image-making machinery. The images that are pre-constructed by theatre makers may become certain culturally threatening instruments, while imagined, interpreted and re-constructed within the context of a stage reality. Estonian theatre has so far seen eight productions of The Merchant of Venice over the last one hundred and twenty five years. Interestingly enough, the performed versions of the play text always signify a profound scene change in the cultural, social, and political setting. I argue that in a performance context, Venice and the figure of Shylock become objects of wishful thinking through a captive consciousness that manifests itself through juvenile constructions of hypnagogic imagination in which, sometimes, scandalous images can be detected. These images do not exist; yet seem to emerge as real objects in the individual consciousness of the spectator. This chapter suggests the ‘hypnagogic imagination’ as a common constitutive practice that seems to operate in the half dormant state of mind of a spectator. Using the concept of ‘imaginary’ as argued in The Imaginary by Jean Paul Sartre, this chapter looks at how Venice and the figure of Shylock have been imagined, constructed, and read.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming | 2015 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |