The Living Imagination in Theatre.
Paul Ricoeur's Concept of Productive Imagination and Acting Techniques
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2025.699Keywords:
Productive Imagination, Paul Ricoeur, Theatre, Michael Chekhov, Acting Techniques, Lee Strasberg, reproductive imaginationAbstract
The present article explores the potential of Paul Ricoeur’s concept of productive imagination, as developed mainly in his Lectures on Imagination, in a theatre studies context. Given the broad scope of imaginative activity in theatre, it focuses on the processes of role creation and interpretation, analyzing the function of imagination in two contrasting acting methods: those of Lee Strasberg and Michael Chekhov. Ricoeur’s distinction, drawing on Kant, between reproductive and productive imagination offers a conceptual framework for understanding the different ways in which actors access their material: Imagination is thus not merely connected to recollection but constitutes a capacity for creative transformation. The focus on performance practice may help to clarify Ricoeur’s conception of imagination and illuminate the intertwining of both modes of imagining. Ricoeur’s conception of an imagination freed from reference to empirical reality opens the possibility of conceiving theatre as a space for the reconfiguration of reality. Theatre art can thus be given a philosophical function: it becomes a way of questioning and reshaping our understanding of the world, and a practice through which reality may be augmented.
References
Michael Chekhov, To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting. Revised and expanded edition. Forword by Simon Callow, Mala Powers (ed.) (London, New York: Routledge, 2002).
Toby Cole/ Helen K. Chinoy, eds., Actors on Acting. The theories, techniques, and practices of the great actors of all times as told in their own words. New Revised Ed. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1970), 621-629.
Saulius Geniusas, Phenomenology of Productive Imagination. Embodiment, Language, Subjectivity (Stuttgart: ibidem, 2022).
Jean Grondin, “The Metaphysical Dimension of Hermeneutics”, in Hermeneutics and Phenomenology. Figures and Themes, eds. Saulius Geniusas and Paul Fairfield (London, New York: Bloomsbury 2018), 125–137.
Ingrid Hentschel, Imagination und Theater. Die Schauspielmethode von Michael Tschechow (Berlin: Alexander, 2022).
Alison Hodge, Actor Training, 2nd Ed. (London and New York: Routledge, 2010).
A.Jackob & K. Röttger, „Einleitung: Theater, Bild und Vorstellung: zur Inszenierung des Sehens,“ in K. Röttger, & A. Jackob (Eds.), Theater und Bild: Inszenierungen des Sehens (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2009), pp.7–39.
Immanuel Kant (1974) [1781/1787]: Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 2 Bde., hg. von Wilhelm Weischedel, Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp (= Bd. III/IV Theorie Werkausgabe, Werke in 12 Bänden).
Immanuel Kant (1977) [1790]: Kritik der Urteilskraft, hg. von Wilhelm Weischedel, Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp (= Bd. X Theorie Werkausgabe, Werke in 12 Bänden).
Rick Kemp, Embodied Acting. What Neuroscience tells us about Performance (London et.al.: Routledge, 2012).
David Krasner, "Strasberg, Adler and Meisner: Method Acting,“ in Actor Training, ed. Alison Hodge (London and New York: Routledge, 2010), 144-163.
Esteban Lythgoe, “Ontology of Actuality and Potentiality as a Way for a Speculative Approach to the Aporetics of Time” in Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies, Vol 15, No 2 (2024), pp. 227-240. (online) DOI 10.5195/errs.2024.682
Christoph Menke, Das Spiel des Theatres und die Veränderung der Welt“ in Theatre als Kritik. Theorie, Geschichte und Praktiken der Ent-Unterwerfung, ed. Olivia Ebert, Eva Holling, Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, Philipp Schulte, Bernhard Siebert, Gerald Siegmund, (Bielefeld: transcript, 2018), 37-48.
Paul Ricoeur, Freedom and Nature: the voluntary and the involuntary, trans. Erazim V. Kohák. (Evenstone: Northwestern University Press 1966).
Paul Ricoeur, “The Metaphorical Process as Cognition, Imagination and Feeling” in Critical Inquiry 5, no.1 (1978) 143-59. Republiushed in On Metaphor, ed. By Sheldon Sacks, (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1979), 141–57.
Paul Ricoeur, “Imagination in Discourse and in Action,” in From Text to Action. Essays in Hermeneutics, II. trans. K. Blamey and J. B. Thompson. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991, 168-87.
Paul Ricoeur, From text to action: Essays in hermeneutics, II., trans. K. Blarney & John B. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press 1991) [1986 Du texte à l’action. Essai d’herméneutique II, Paris: Seuil i.O.]
Paul Ricoeur, Mémoire, l'Histoire, l'Oubli. L'Ordre philosophique (Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 2000)
Paul Ricoeur, Memory, History, Forgetting, trans. Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004)
Paul Ricoeur, Lectures on Imagination, ed. by George H. Taylor, Robert D. Sweeney et.al. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2024)
Paul Ricoeur, Gabriel Marcel, Entretiens Paul Ricoeur Gabriel Marcel (Paris: Editions Aubier—Montaigne, 1968).
Lee Strasberg, A Dream of Passion: The Development of the Method (New York: Plume, 1987).
Lee Strasberg, “The Actor and Himself” in Toby Cole/ Helen K. Chinoy, eds., Actors on Acting. The theories, techniques, and practices of the great actors of all times as told in their own words. New Revised Ed. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1970), 621—629
Man-to TANG, “False Memories and Reproductive Imagination: Ricoeur’s Phenomenology of Memory,” META: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy, vol. VII, No 1 (June 2015): 29–51.
George H. Taylor, “Ricoeur’s Philosophy of Imagination,” Journal of French Philosophy, 16 (1 & 2) (2006), 93-104.
George H. Taylor, “The Depth Dimension of Ricoeur’s Philosophy of Imagination”, International Journal of Social Imaginaries 3 (2024) 5–30.
Christoph Wulf, Bilder des Menschen. Imaginäre und performative Grundlagen der Kultur (Bielefeld: transcript, 2014).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Ingrid Hentschel
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
- Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons 4.0 License (Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works), or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
- Noncommercial—other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes;
- No Derivative Works—other users (including Publisher) may not alter, transform, or build upon this Work,with the understanding that any of the above conditions can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- the Work is the Author’s original work;
- the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- the Work has not previously been published;
- the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
