Call number: LD2668 .T4 1964 B16 / Master of Science

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), irlandais d’expression française et anglaise, peut être considéré comme un des écrivains modernistes du XXe siècle les plus influents. Son nom est surtout associé au théâtre de l’absurde, un style de théâtre des années 50 inspiré des surréalistes et des dadaïstes, dont l’origine était le traumatisme de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Parmi les pièces absurdes les plus importantes se trouve En attendant Godot de Beckett, une pièce connue et jouée dans le monde entier. Ce que Samuel Beckett nous montre dans En attendant Godot est évidemment l’absurdité de la vie, et l’absurdité de ce qui n’est pas encore venu ou déterminé. Le point central dans cette pièce est – malgré l’absence d’histoire, de sens et de but – sa représentation de la condition humaine : les relations, la communication, l’inquiétude et, bien sûr, l’attente. Le but de se mémoire sera d’examiner de quelle manière Beckett révèle son image de la condition humaine à travers d’une pièce rompant avec toute convention théâtrale classique.

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When the Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) wrote Waiting for Godot in 1948-1949 he was in a state of artistic depression and confusion. He had already turned to French instead of English and with a manuscript for the stage he made an effort to get away from what he called ”the awful prose” he was working on at that time. Waiting for Godot had its first opening night in Paris in 1953, and during the years since then many different interpretations have been made of this challenging work of art. In this essay, with the meta textual elements in Waiting for Godot as a foundation, I’m reading the drama as a writer’s struggle with his material – not strictly biographical, but with Beckett as an artistic example. Vladimir and Estragon, as well as Pozzo and Lucky, then become personalizations of the voices in the mind of the author, where intellect/reason/analysis on one hand and intuition/feeling/fantasy on the other are working side by side, or as a pair of opposites, to try to get along through conflict and cooperation; conferring, clashing, and complementing one another. Godot will then function as the mystical and driving force, the necessary lack of purpose or fundamental meaning that keeps the artist in touch with art. In this aspect Godot has not to come; his absence is an absolute condition to get the play going, to keep the writer writing, to make all artists continue their lonely, tiresome, difficult work. Waiting for Godot tells us something about the struggle every writer has to face when writing a play, or a novel, or a poem, where he, or she, has to speak with and listen to the inner voices of intuition and intellect and try to get by in spite of the overall sense of hopelessness of it all. Art is at the same time without meaning and of infinite value and I believe that this paradox is alive and working in Waiting for Godot.

Univ., Diss.--Frankfurt am Main, 2006.

O foco dessa dissertação é analisar o papel, as características, e a presença dos bobos ao longo da história, focando em sua constante aparição no teatro. Os personagens principais da minha análise serão o Bobo, na peça Rei Lear de William Shakespeare, e Vladimir e Estragon, na peça Esperando Godot de Samuel Beckett. Na análise desses personagens, discuto semelhanças entre os autores, que já foram notadas por críticos como Martin Esslin, Jan Kott, e Northrop Frye, e mostro como os personagens de Beckett são similares aos bobos de Shakespeare. Bobos, no teatro, frequentemente agem como mediadores entre o palco e a plateia, guiando os espectadores e falando verdades. O Bobo de Lear diz verdades criticando seu mestre e o lembrando das decisões erradas que ele tomou; os personagens em Esperando Godot dizem verdades sobre a falta de sentido de nossas vidas e, mais importante, nos mostram essa falta de sentido no decorrer da peça. Em relação à linguagem, o uso dela pelos bobos é diferente do uso dos outros personagens porque eles a manipulam para criar desentendimentos e jogos de palavras. No teatro de Shakespeare, a principal razão para esse uso peculiar da linguagem é que os bobos querem mostrar sua sagacidade; no teatro de Beckett, eles usam uma linguagem sem sentido para mostrar que ela está quebrada e que tentativas de comunicação são inúteis. Através das ações e diálogos dos bobos de Beckett em Esperando Godot, podemos ver que a vida é absurda e que vivemos em um mundo cheio de incertezas. Apesar de personagens bobos geralmente serem vistos como superficiais e insignificantes, especialmente nas peças de Shakespeare, eles são extremamente importantes no teatro e têm uma maneira única de interagir com os outros personagens e com o público. / The focus of this thesis is to analyze the role, characteristics, and presence of fools throughout history, focusing on their recurrence in the theater. The characters I will focus on are Lear's Fool in William Shakespeare's King Lear, and Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, discussing similarities between the two authors, which have been mentioned by critics such as Martin Esslin, Jan Kott and Northrop Frye, and showing how Beckett's characters are similar to Shakespearean fools. Fools in the theater often act as mediators between the stage and the audience, guiding spectators and telling truths. Lear's Fool tells truths by criticizing his master and reminding him of the wrong decisions he has made; the characters in Waiting for Godot tell truths about the meaninglessness of life and, most importantly, show us this meaninglessness throughout the play. The use of language by fools is different from that of other characters because they manipulate it to create misunderstandings and word games. In Shakespeare's theater, the main reason for this peculiar use of language is that fools want to show their wit; in Beckett's theater, the characters use nonsensical language to show that language has broken down and that attempts at communication are pointless. Through the actions and dialogues of Beckett's fools in Waiting for Godot, we can see that life is absurd and that we live in a world full of uncertainties. In spite of the fact that fool characters are often seen as shallow and insignificant, especially in Shakespeare's theater, they are of extreme importance in the theater and have a unique manner of interacting with other characters and with the audience.

O foco dessa dissertação é analisar o papel, as características, e a presença dos bobos ao longo da história, focando em sua constante aparição no teatro. Os personagens principais da minha análise serão o Bobo, na peça Rei Lear de William Shakespeare, e Vladimir e Estragon, na peça Esperando Godot de Samuel Beckett. Na análise desses personagens, discuto semelhanças entre os autores, que já foram notadas por críticos como Martin Esslin, Jan Kott, e Northrop Frye, e mostro como os personagens de Beckett são similares aos bobos de Shakespeare. Bobos, no teatro, frequentemente agem como mediadores entre o palco e a plateia, guiando os espectadores e falando verdades. O Bobo de Lear diz verdades criticando seu mestre e o lembrando das decisões erradas que ele tomou; os personagens em Esperando Godot dizem verdades sobre a falta de sentido de nossas vidas e, mais importante, nos mostram essa falta de sentido no decorrer da peça. Em relação à linguagem, o uso dela pelos bobos é diferente do uso dos outros personagens porque eles a manipulam para criar desentendimentos e jogos de palavras. No teatro de Shakespeare, a principal razão para esse uso peculiar da linguagem é que os bobos querem mostrar sua sagacidade; no teatro de Beckett, eles usam uma linguagem sem sentido para mostrar que ela está quebrada e que tentativas de comunicação são inúteis. Através das ações e diálogos dos bobos de Beckett em Esperando Godot, podemos ver que a vida é absurda e que vivemos em um mundo cheio de incertezas. Apesar de personagens bobos geralmente serem vistos como superficiais e insignificantes, especialmente nas peças de Shakespeare, eles são extremamente importantes no teatro e têm uma maneira única de interagir com os outros personagens e com o público. / The focus of this thesis is to analyze the role, characteristics, and presence of fools throughout history, focusing on their recurrence in the theater. The characters I will focus on are Lear's Fool in William Shakespeare's King Lear, and Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, discussing similarities between the two authors, which have been mentioned by critics such as Martin Esslin, Jan Kott and Northrop Frye, and showing how Beckett's characters are similar to Shakespearean fools. Fools in the theater often act as mediators between the stage and the audience, guiding spectators and telling truths. Lear's Fool tells truths by criticizing his master and reminding him of the wrong decisions he has made; the characters in Waiting for Godot tell truths about the meaninglessness of life and, most importantly, show us this meaninglessness throughout the play. The use of language by fools is different from that of other characters because they manipulate it to create misunderstandings and word games. In Shakespeare's theater, the main reason for this peculiar use of language is that fools want to show their wit; in Beckett's theater, the characters use nonsensical language to show that language has broken down and that attempts at communication are pointless. Through the actions and dialogues of Beckett's fools in Waiting for Godot, we can see that life is absurd and that we live in a world full of uncertainties. In spite of the fact that fool characters are often seen as shallow and insignificant, especially in Shakespeare's theater, they are of extreme importance in the theater and have a unique manner of interacting with other characters and with the audience.

O foco dessa dissertação é analisar o papel, as características, e a presença dos bobos ao longo da história, focando em sua constante aparição no teatro. Os personagens principais da minha análise serão o Bobo, na peça Rei Lear de William Shakespeare, e Vladimir e Estragon, na peça Esperando Godot de Samuel Beckett. Na análise desses personagens, discuto semelhanças entre os autores, que já foram notadas por críticos como Martin Esslin, Jan Kott, e Northrop Frye, e mostro como os personagens de Beckett são similares aos bobos de Shakespeare. Bobos, no teatro, frequentemente agem como mediadores entre o palco e a plateia, guiando os espectadores e falando verdades. O Bobo de Lear diz verdades criticando seu mestre e o lembrando das decisões erradas que ele tomou; os personagens em Esperando Godot dizem verdades sobre a falta de sentido de nossas vidas e, mais importante, nos mostram essa falta de sentido no decorrer da peça. Em relação à linguagem, o uso dela pelos bobos é diferente do uso dos outros personagens porque eles a manipulam para criar desentendimentos e jogos de palavras. No teatro de Shakespeare, a principal razão para esse uso peculiar da linguagem é que os bobos querem mostrar sua sagacidade; no teatro de Beckett, eles usam uma linguagem sem sentido para mostrar que ela está quebrada e que tentativas de comunicação são inúteis. Através das ações e diálogos dos bobos de Beckett em Esperando Godot, podemos ver que a vida é absurda e que vivemos em um mundo cheio de incertezas. Apesar de personagens bobos geralmente serem vistos como superficiais e insignificantes, especialmente nas peças de Shakespeare, eles são extremamente importantes no teatro e têm uma maneira única de interagir com os outros personagens e com o público. / The focus of this thesis is to analyze the role, characteristics, and presence of fools throughout history, focusing on their recurrence in the theater. The characters I will focus on are Lear's Fool in William Shakespeare's King Lear, and Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, discussing similarities between the two authors, which have been mentioned by critics such as Martin Esslin, Jan Kott and Northrop Frye, and showing how Beckett's characters are similar to Shakespearean fools. Fools in the theater often act as mediators between the stage and the audience, guiding spectators and telling truths. Lear's Fool tells truths by criticizing his master and reminding him of the wrong decisions he has made; the characters in Waiting for Godot tell truths about the meaninglessness of life and, most importantly, show us this meaninglessness throughout the play. The use of language by fools is different from that of other characters because they manipulate it to create misunderstandings and word games. In Shakespeare's theater, the main reason for this peculiar use of language is that fools want to show their wit; in Beckett's theater, the characters use nonsensical language to show that language has broken down and that attempts at communication are pointless. Through the actions and dialogues of Beckett's fools in Waiting for Godot, we can see that life is absurd and that we live in a world full of uncertainties. In spite of the fact that fool characters are often seen as shallow and insignificant, especially in Shakespeare's theater, they are of extreme importance in the theater and have a unique manner of interacting with other characters and with the audience.

Ce mémoire s’intéresse au silence dans le théâtre postdramatique, et ce, à partir de la dramaturgie de Samuel Beckett, que nous nommerons « dramaturgie du silence ». Notre recherche vise à analyser les manières avec lesquelles Beckett a donné naissance à une nouvelle forme dramaturgique en mettant à profit les formes d’un héritage dans le théâtre postdramatique, au travers des œuvres de certains auteurs tels que Nathalie Sarraute, Marguerite Duras et Franz Xaver Kroetz. Pour ce faire, nous analyserons deux pièces de théâtre beckettiennes, soit En attendant Godot et Fin de partie. Nous relèverons alors les stratégies et les effets du silence qui est privilégié pour ensuite chercher des pistes de réponses à nos questions de recherche au travers de certaines œuvres de nos trois autres auteurs précédemment identifiés. Les hypothèses issues de cette phase de travail ont alors été analysées et comparées, afin que l’héritage beckettien en ressorte. Le présent mémoire retrace donc ce processus et met en évidence les stratégies de cette dramaturgie du silence, dans l’intention de démontrer que Samuel Beckett est le précurseur d’un renouvellement dramaturgique basé sur le silence.