Creation of Space in Radio Drama; “Semiotic Analysis of Space in Radio Drama”

Enjoying theatrical uniqueness and autonomy, radio drama is a renowned and recognized kind of drama. Meanwhile, dramatic space in radio plays is a critical, important issue to be focused on. Using methods and vehicles provided by semiotics, this study tries to analyze various aspects of "creation of space" in radio drama, showing how fundamental information could be presented in order to gradually establish the space of the drama. To this end, first space-creating parameters in radio drama are recognized with their functions in space-creating, using textual analysis based on "stratificational semiotics".stratificational semiotics is analytical perspective to the text which was presented by Farzan Sojoodi. This theory, proposed in the author's book, Applied Semiotics (Sojoodi 2003). Stratificational semiotics, has been proposed first, as a hypothesis, and after being examined and evaluated in research and various studies, , gradually distinguished its position as a scientific theory in discussions of semiotics, and now, stratificational semiotics, is accepted as a scientific theory and considered as the theoretical foundations of numerous theses, books and scientific articles.It seems that giving a very brief account of this approach is inevitable, in the frame of stratificational semiotics, the text is composed of several layers that some of them may be considered more important than the others, But the implications of the text are affecting all layers. "Meaning" is an outcome of the interaction between all text layers, sub-layers, prior knowledge and codes. This study attempts to rely on the theoretical foundations of stratificational semiotics, to analyze four elements in radio drama -speech, music, sound effect and meaningful silence- as the space builder layers in radio drama. so that, each of these factors produce a "text layer" and therefore promote their functions and roles in the creation of space. So, we have four layer which include: layer of speech, layer of music, layer of sound effect, layer of silence, and, there is a syntagmatic relations or associations between them. These layers interact with each other, influence each other and finally make the overall space of the play. The effective space-creating leads to mental imagery and producing meaning to the audience of radio drama.The space in this article not only means where the theatre takes place, but it refers to the dominant spirit of the drama's world. Space-creating in radio drama occurs in two stages: one, when the author writing the play, and reflected his mind in the drama, and the other, during the recording of the play, that, at this stage, the director is responsible of creation of space. In this paper Space-creating in its first stage, the writing of the script, is desired. Finally, the study intends to show how to create the Comprehensive space of the drama while introducing place, time, action, characters location as well as moods such as warmth, coldness, heaviness, disappointment, happiness, fear, love, sorrow, hesitation, mystery, and etc. through intensifying interaction between different textual layers constructing mood.