| Abstract [eng] |
This dissertation examines the communication of politically engaged extra-aesthetic meanings in contemporary opera, focusing on the processes through which such meanings are encoded in artistic discourse and decoded by audiences with different cultural competencies. Opera is conceptualised as a communicative and symbolic space in which aesthetic, extra-aesthetic, and political meanings are constructed through the interaction of artistic form, content, and audience interpretation. The theoretical framework integrates Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model, adapted to arts communication through Hans van Maanen’s theory of art perception, and is further informed by the concepts of Ch. Mouffe, J. Rancière, H. R. Jauss, N. Luhmann, A. Schütz, Th. W. Adorno, and P. Bourdieu. Empirically, the study employs a qualitative case study of the contemporary anti-opera “Traviatas”, combining deductive content analysis with inductive focus group interviews involving audiences with different cultural experience. The findings demonstrate that political meanings are encoded primarily through formal and structural artistic strategies rather than politically explicit content. The main finding of the research: the perception of extra-aesthetic meanings in contemporary opera is characterised by an asymmetrical relationship between encoding and decoding. The majority of audience members adopt a negotiated mode of decoding, shaped by their horizon of expectation and cultural experience. As a result, the meanings they construct partially align with the creators' intentions to produce political effects, yet the aesthetic language of contemporary opera enables a considerable degree of interpretive autonomy. In other words, in the case examined, audiences did perceive the opera's extra-aesthetic political meanings, but not necessarily in the precise way intended by its creators. This dissertation contributes to communication and information sciences by adapting Hall’s communication model to arts communication and proposing a conceptual distinction between aesthetic, extra-aesthetic, and political meanings. |
