Forma sociale della psicologia alfabetica. Il teatro nell'ipotesi "neuroculturale" di de Kerckhove

Following the studies of Marshall McLuhan and Eric Havelock, Derrick De Kerchkove argues that the invention of theater by the Athenian community between the sixth and fifth centuries BC marks a decisive moment in the formation of Western mind, to be closely connected with the contemporary invention of alphabetic writing. Since attending to the theatrical performance requires attention and behavior characterized by immobility, distance and mental reflection, theater would have contributed to the emergence of modes of perception and participation in social life dependent on the increasing value of eye and sight, while promoting the decline of the oral and tribal ear. Theater was indeed one of the main instruments of what de Kerckhove call “desensorialization” of knowledge and experience. Has the profound transformation of communication media brought to some change? Signals from experimental theater of the second half of the twentieth century seem to suggest a significant change in the status of the performing arts, if not a true reversal. In the context of contemporary communicaton, characterized by virtuality and digital networks, the practice of performing arts (theatre, music, dance) acquires a predominantly opposite value as a potential "accelerator" of “ri-sensorialization” of knowledge.