Returning to Ortega: from the theory of metaphor to the “as if...” of the scene

Abstract

The lucidity and topicality of Ortega’s finding in his definition of the scenic phenomenon are verified from the dialogue that his ideas establish with the most recent contributions of theatrical theory. The article thus exami- nes the transposition that Ortega proposes of theory of metaphor in the understanding of the processes of signification and reception that scenic sign constructs. The specificity and expressive power of both procedures reside, from Ortega’s point of view, in “the false affirmation of a total identity from a partial one”. Theater –like metaphor– involves a type of communication that encrypts its specificity in dissimilarity, in the incomplete identity between signifier –dramatic sign– and signified.