Hannah Arendt’s concept of public space: the source of the theatrical metaphor

Abstract

This paper focuses on Hannah Arendt's concept of public space based on metaphors from the theater sphere. The main objective consists of reconstructing the path between the intuitions from the world of theater and the construction of the Arendtian concept of the public space. After some methodological clarifications, the expressions related to the theatrical sphere are listed. Later, the sources of the theatrical metaphor are analized and the concept of public space is characterized from them. This paper shows that: 1. The source of theatrical metaphor includes ancient tragedy as well as contemporary forms of theatre. 2. Contemporary forms of theatre allow: a) the conceptualization of social forms of publicity and, b) the role of spectators to be considered politically relevant.