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Pieces of the Body, Shards of the Soul: The Martyrs of Erik Ehn

Linn, Rachel E.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1427822605

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts).
This dissertation demonstrates that theatre has had a longstanding interest in the possibility of one object changing into another through miraculous means. Transubstantiation through art has occupied Western theatre from its roots in the medieval period. Contemporary theatre holds on to many deep-rooted assumptions about the performing body derived from medieval religious influence, both consciously and unconsciously. This influence is more pronounced in certain writers and artists, but it manifests itself as a lingering belief that the body (living and dead) is a source of power. This dissertation finds religious influence and an interest in the performing body’s power in the martyr plays of Erik Ehn. According to theologians like Andrew Greeley and art scholars like Eleanor Heartney, artists associated with the Catholic Church show an especially keen fascination with the body as a sacred object. This is one aspect of the trend they call the Catholic Imagination or the Analogical Imagination. The Analogical Imagination, according to Greeley, “tends to emphasize the metaphorical nature of creation… everything in creation… discloses something about God and, in doing so, brings God among us” (Greeley 6). From an Analogical perspective, the body not only suggests the possibility of miraculous transformation, it is both “material” and “sacred” in the same moment. It is continuously and miraculously transforming. The first two chapters of the dissertation address the continuing influence of medieval ideas on contemporary theatre practice and criticism. It then turns to a more specific case study, focusing on the work of Erik Ehn to further illuminate the influence of these ideas in contemporary practice. Playwright Erik Ehn’s The Saint Plays offer fertile ground for an exploration of transubstantiation. The Saint Plays is a published collection of short plays that manifest many qualities of the Analogical Imagination in its exploration of Catholic saints. This dissertation addresses six of those plays: Wholly Joan’s (Joan of Arc), Locus (John the Baptist), 16670 (Maximilian Mary Kolbe), The Freak (George), Radio Elephant (Barbara), and Pain (Eulalia). The last four chapters explore the power of desire, the permeability of “material” and “spiritual” realities, the concept of liminality and the fractured body as factors in transubstantiation as these six plays depict it. Ehn’s medieval-influenced paradigms in The Saint Plays make use of contemporary ideas and tactics seamlessly. His ease in integrating contemporary ideas in his Analogical work exposes the relationship between the Analogical Imagination and current theatre concepts like “ghosting” and “doubling.” This fusion calls into question the assumed distance between contemporary and medieval ideas.
William Condee (Advisor)
Charles Buchanan (Committee Member)
Vladimir Marchenkov (Committee Member)
Matthew Cornish (Committee Member)
210 p.
Literature; Performing Arts; Religion; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies
Erik Ehn; Saints; Martyrs; Joan of Arc; John the Baptist; Maximilian Mary Kolbe; Saint George; Saint Barbara; Saint Eulalia

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Linn, R. E. (2015). Pieces of the Body, Shards of the Soul: The Martyrs of Erik Ehn [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1427822605

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Linn, Rachel. Pieces of the Body, Shards of the Soul: The Martyrs of Erik Ehn. 2015. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1427822605.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Linn, Rachel. "Pieces of the Body, Shards of the Soul: The Martyrs of Erik Ehn." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1427822605

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.