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Roman Ingarden's consideration of theatrical performance can be found in his book "The Literary Work of Art."¹ Two articles in it are especially concerned with theatre: "The Stage Play" (317–23) and the appendix "The Function of Language in the Theatre" (377–93). The latter Ingarden wrote in the fifties,² more than twenty years after the former. Though he does not comment on this, it seem an important fact because from the current point of view the two articles can be evaluated differently. The ideas expressed in "The Function of Language in the Theatre" harmonize with contemporary thoughts on theatre while "The Stage Play" represents a stand which seems controversial, though it is not necessary to add that its intellectual rank and inspirational value are exceptional. The ideas expressed in both articles are the main subject of my considerations, although Ingarden also dealt with the question of drama and of theatrical performance in many other places in his book, considering them from various angles.³

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-2257-0_11

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