presentness

plural presentnesses

1. uncountableusuallyThe characteristic of being present (in either place or time).

   Our apparent immediacy, our presentness on stage is already a deferral and a delay. The god’s explanation for his chiding question (“You have delayed for a long time”) belongs to the formulation of différance.

   1996, Theatrical Space and Historical Place in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, page 155

   2 more examples

   The enemies of theatre thus distinguished between two types of presence in the theatre: the presentness created by the actor’s semiotic body in the portrayal of a fictional character’s passionate actions, and the presentness exerted by the actor’s phenomenal body.

   2008, The Transformative Power of Performance, page 94

   In recent years, stars have learned that their intense presentness in people’s daily lives and their access to the uppermost realms of politics, business and the media offer them a peculiar kind of moral position, should they care to use it.

   2008 March 9, James Traub, “The Celebrity Solution”, in New York Times

   Synonyms: presence · Antonyms: absentness, absence