Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning

The way in which school students represent affective aspects of human relationships in drama and what this reveals about learning in drama is the focus of this paper. Such an enquiry traverses the borders between affect, intellect and physicality. Affect and its representation in drama have been the...

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Main Author: Franks, Anton
Format: Article
Published: Routledge Taylor & Francis 2014
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28815/
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author Franks, Anton
author_facet Franks, Anton
author_sort Franks, Anton
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The way in which school students represent affective aspects of human relationships in drama and what this reveals about learning in drama is the focus of this paper. Such an enquiry traverses the borders between affect, intellect and physicality. Affect and its representation in drama have been themes in the history of drama and theatre and is a current concern in the field of applied theatre and drama. Writers on drama in schools have hitherto been mostly concerned with affect in terms of feelings experienced and emotions represented by students participating in drama. There has, however, been little theorisation of what students’ representation of affective human relations might reveal about the complexity of learning processes involved. Cultural theories of representation and learning are related to an example, drawn from field notes, of school student drama in which students present a stylised representation of a relationship. Because affect is intimately connected with both the bodilyness and modes of representation in drama, multimodal social semiotic analysis will be used as one component of a framework to draw attention to the body as a principal material and tool for making meaning in drama. Theoretically, explanations of learning will be taken from the work of Vygotsky, who maintained a lifelong interest in both drama and learning and the relationship between the two. Concepts taken from the cultural theories of Raymond Williams are also referred to – specifically to the ways in which cultural activity and artefacts represent ‘structures of feeling’.
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spelling nottingham-288152020-05-04T20:14:32Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28815/ Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning Franks, Anton The way in which school students represent affective aspects of human relationships in drama and what this reveals about learning in drama is the focus of this paper. Such an enquiry traverses the borders between affect, intellect and physicality. Affect and its representation in drama have been themes in the history of drama and theatre and is a current concern in the field of applied theatre and drama. Writers on drama in schools have hitherto been mostly concerned with affect in terms of feelings experienced and emotions represented by students participating in drama. There has, however, been little theorisation of what students’ representation of affective human relations might reveal about the complexity of learning processes involved. Cultural theories of representation and learning are related to an example, drawn from field notes, of school student drama in which students present a stylised representation of a relationship. Because affect is intimately connected with both the bodilyness and modes of representation in drama, multimodal social semiotic analysis will be used as one component of a framework to draw attention to the body as a principal material and tool for making meaning in drama. Theoretically, explanations of learning will be taken from the work of Vygotsky, who maintained a lifelong interest in both drama and learning and the relationship between the two. Concepts taken from the cultural theories of Raymond Williams are also referred to – specifically to the ways in which cultural activity and artefacts represent ‘structures of feeling’. Routledge Taylor & Francis 2014-05 Article PeerReviewed Franks, Anton (2014) Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 19 (2). pp. 195-207. ISSN 1356-9783 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569783.2014.895614 doi:10.1080/13569783.2014.895614 doi:10.1080/13569783.2014.895614
spellingShingle Franks, Anton
Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning
title Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning
title_full Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning
title_fullStr Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning
title_full_unstemmed Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning
title_short Drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning
title_sort drama and the representation of affect: structures of feeling and signs of learning
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28815/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28815/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28815/