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Abstract

Marisa Mouton's book on a semiotic approach to the theory of drama and theatre, Dramateorie vandag (Dramatic Theory Today, 1989), is a welcome addition to this field in Afrikaans. It meets the first requirement Carlson (1990: xii) sets for future investigations of the semiotics of theatre and drama, i.e. an investigation of the contribution of the audience, and hence the influence of the performance, on dramatic and theatrical communication. Following Carlson (1990: xiii) this article argues for an extension of Mouton's findings on ''the semiotics of the entire theatre experience (as opposed to what happens on the stage or between the on-stage creation and the spectator)". The third argument is in favour of a contribution to the semiotics of "the relation of theatre to the life of which it is an imitation" (Carlson 1990: xiv). This article consequently argues for the contribution of a theory of possible worlds to the semiotics of theatre and drama.

Opsomming

Die publikasie van Marisa Mouton se Dramateorie vandag (1989) is 'n welkome toevoe­ging tot die uiters skrale voorraad van besinning in Afrikaans oor die drama- en teaterteorie op semiotiese grondslag. Die waarde van hierdie werk le daarin dat drama- en teaterkom­munikasie vanuit die perspektief van die opvoering betrag word, 'n benadering wat Carlson (1990: xii) reeds as nuut en noodsaaklik uitgewys het. Hierdie artikel bepleit meer teoretiese aandag ook vir die oorblywende twee terreine wat Carlson noem. Dit is naamlik die totale teatrale ervaring (wat die handeling op die verhoog of die interaksie met die gehoor uitsluit), en die invloed van moontlike werelde op die semiotiese kommunikasiepro­ses (Carlson 1990: xiii en xiv).