Text and Subtext: Dramatic Dialogue as Action (With an Observation of the Speech Act Theory and the Primary Foundations of Playwriting in Iran)

The theater artists do not consider the dialogues of the play as words which must be articulated by actors, but as actions which must be performed by them. The dramatic action makes invariable change in the situaation of characters and in fact is simply «subtext» and should not be confused with motivation. Such a concept may have a close relation with the speech act theory as developed in the views of J. L. Austin and John Searle. The reflection of Austin and Searle views in theoretical and practical principles of drama and fiction has been widely developed: theoreticians and practitioners have rejected the inappropriaate division of «fiction» and «reality.» In the second half of the present article, the writer has attempted to follow the examples of above discusssions and through a comparative study has found that the scene of Iranian modern dramatic literature has been turned to the monologic action realm of the writer and the characters have been unable to reach their ultimate action in text. Drawing on the terminology of Benveniste, it can be held that the action of text and playwright in Iranian present dramatic literature is rather at the level of énonciation than the énoncé. If an interaction exists, it is between the writer and the audience and the trilateral interaction of playwright-textaudience is less observable. Finally, the writer considers the structuralist but immature study of William Beeman on interactive structure of Iranian’s language.