This thesis examines the mechanical comic techniques which are characteristic of farce as a dramatic forma in the European theatre. It briefly traces the origins of the term in the mediaeval liturgical drama and the history of its critical usage. Contemporary criticism of the genre rests upon the common, though ill-defined, understanding that farce is a specific form of comedy and that certain distinguishing characteristics are associated with plays which may be described as farces; although farcical techniques and scenes of farce may also be utilized by other comic forms for their own dramatic purposes. Some of those characteristics are examined in detail -- farce's exclusive concern with laughter and its lack, as a genre, of any more serious dramatic purpose; its spirit of festive liberation; its obscenity and its essential conservatism; its irregularity and improbability in plot structure; its dependence upon predictable co-incidence and other mechanical patterns of events; its use of stock, or 'type' characters and its association with masks; its exploitation of visual comedy and its relationship to the actor's art. Brief historical outlines are given of the chief period of farce in the European theatre, between the development of the Graeco-Roman stages and the close of the nineteenth century. These range from the crude and traditional folk-performances and the buffooneries of the fairground and the boulevarde to the sophisticated 'manners-farce', the vaudeville and the 'naturalistic' farces constructed in the style of the 'well-made play'. From the most popular and best-known pieces of these different periods a total of twenty-four plays is taken for detailed discussion. The analysis of each deals firstly with the broad structure of the plot, with the targets of the aggression in the play and with the pattern of resolution of the conflict. Secondly, it examines within that structure the use of recurring mechanical devices or motifs, such as those identified by Bergson, Hughes, Bentley and others: repetition, reversals, disguise and trickery, physical violence, mental and physical 'fixations' in the characters and so forth. Given this approach, which sets aside particular concern with wit and verbal comedy, some of the plays are studied in English translation after careful comparison with the original text. From these analyses it is apparent that the mechanical devices invest both the broad structure of the plot and the individual farce-scenes with a fundamental balance between the opposing forces in the farcical conflict. This balance is achieved in different ways for different structures depending upon the complexity of the conflict. In the plays in which a single rebellious impulse carries the conflict forward, the rigidity of the victim restores him a the resolution to his position of authority. In others, the aggressors suffer a specific reversal and the action is resolved in a draw between the two sides. In others, the victims directly earn their humiliation by their own repressive action and the aggressions are equally balanced from the outset. In still others, the mechanical devices are applied so minutely that they remind the audience at all times that aggressors victims alike are puppets reacting to interventions beyond their control. A pattern of co-incidence visible only to the audience may be invoked to overwhelm all the characters with a mutual humiliation. Farce proclaims its own characters; but when such a rule is allied to sympathetic and human characterization and to a serious social concern, the result may be that farcical techniques powerfully serve some other dramatic purpose.

This dissertation examines the renovation of the modernist stage, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the late 1930s, via a retrieval of three artistic forms that had marginal importance in the commercial theatre of the nineteenth century. These three paths are the tradition of the commedia dell’arte, puppetry and marionettes, and, finally, what I denominate mysterium, following Elinor Fuch’s terminology in The Death of Character. This dissertation covers the temporal span of the first three decades of the twentieth century and, at the same time, analyzes modernist theatre in connection with the history of Western drama since the consolidation of the bourgeois institution of theatre around the late eighteenth century. The Theatrical Pendulum: Paths of Innovation in the Modernist Stage studies the renovation of the bourgeois institution of theatre by means of the rediscovery of artistic forms previously relegated to a peripheral status in the capitalist system of artistic production and distribution. In their dramatic works, Nikolai Evreinov, Josef and Karel Čapek, Massimo Bontempelli, and Federico García Lorca present fictional actors, playwrights and directors who resist the fact that their work be evaluated as just another commodity. These dramatists collaborate with the commercial stage of their time, instead of adopting the radical stance that characterized avant-garde movements such as Italian futurism and Dadaism. Yet they also question the illusionist fourth wall separating stage and audience in order to denounce the subjection of the modernist artist to the expectations of bourgeois spectators. Jan Mukařovský’s concept of practical function in art is central to understanding the didactic nature of the dramatic texts studied in this dissertation. By claiming the importance of Mukařovský’s phenomenological structuralism, I propose a new reading of the theoretical legacy of the Prague School in conjunction with recent contributions in the field of theatre studies by Elinor Fuchs, Martin Puchner and other scholars whose work will be discussed here.

This dissertation examines the renovation of the modernist stage, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the late 1930s, via a retrieval of three artistic forms that had marginal importance in the commercial theatre of the nineteenth century. These three paths are the tradition of the commedia dell’arte, puppetry and marionettes, and, finally, what I denominate mysterium, following Elinor Fuch’s terminology in The Death of Character. This dissertation covers the temporal span of the first three decades of the twentieth century and, at the same time, analyzes modernist theatre in connection with the history of Western drama since the consolidation of the bourgeois institution of theatre around the late eighteenth century. The Theatrical Pendulum: Paths of Innovation in the Modernist Stage studies the renovation of the bourgeois institution of theatre by means of the rediscovery of artistic forms previously relegated to a peripheral status in the capitalist system of artistic production and distribution. In their dramatic works, Nikolai Evreinov, Josef and Karel Čapek, Massimo Bontempelli, and Federico García Lorca present fictional actors, playwrights and directors who resist the fact that their work be evaluated as just another commodity. These dramatists collaborate with the commercial stage of their time, instead of adopting the radical stance that characterized avant-garde movements such as Italian futurism and Dadaism. Yet they also question the illusionist fourth wall separating stage and audience in order to denounce the subjection of the modernist artist to the expectations of bourgeois spectators. Jan Mukařovský’s concept of practical function in art is central to understanding the didactic nature of the dramatic texts studied in this dissertation. By claiming the importance of Mukařovský’s phenomenological structuralism, I propose a new reading of the theoretical legacy of the Prague School in conjunction with recent contributions in the field of theatre studies by Elinor Fuchs, Martin Puchner and other scholars whose work will be discussed here.

Depuis les années mille neuf cent soixante-dix, l'autobiographie littéraire ne cesse de susciter un intérêt croissant et les travaux critiques à son sujet sont actuellement nombreux. Cependant, aucune étude théorique exhaustive sur l'autobiographie uniquement théâtrale n'existe à ce jour. Face à cet écart flagrant entre la pratique existante et la théorie manquante, il semble nécessaire d'apporter une contribution à la théorisation et à la classification de cette catégorie problématique. La présente thèse, dont le titre se réfère à l'ouvrage charnière de Philippe Lejeune Pour l'autobiographie, s'interroge dans un premier temps sur la crise des genres (autobiographique et théâtral) afin d'analyser l'histoire et la genèse de l'autobiographie dramatico-théâtrale à partir du Drame de la vie de Restif de la Bretonne. Cette recherche se doit cependant non seulement de défendre un genre déprisé, mais également de plaider pour son existence.Étant donné l'essor du théâtre autobiographique après la Seconde Guerre mondiale (dont l'Histoire générale ne cesse de contaminer l'histoire intime des autobiographes en question), ce travail porte sur l'insertion de l'autobiographie dans les drames et les spectacles européens de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Les exemples choisis mettent en lumière les créateurs investis entièrement dans la mise en espace de leur propre histoire : de l'écriture, en passant par la scénographie et la mise en scène, jusqu'au jeu et / ou présence scénique. Les critères de sélection des œuvres du corpus (six cas d'études principaux : Anouilh, Duras, Grumberg, Ionesco, Kantor, Różewicz) portent sur le rapport direct des écrivains dramatiques à la conception du spectacle vivant, et soulèvent par là la question de la création totale, de la transformation des genres, de l'(ir)représentabilité de l'autobiographie sur scène et de la (re)construction de soi et de son passé par le biais d'un spectacle théâtral. Le dialogue constant entre l'histoire personnelle de l'auteur (autobiographie mise en forme) et l'Histoire générale (mémoires subjectivisés) constituera donc le motif privilégié de cette étude.Cette étude a ainsi pour vocation d'apporter non seulement une contribution à la définition et à l'évolution du théâtre autobiographique, en démontrant les spécificités et les caractéristiques communes des œuvres théâtrales de soi, mais aussi – ou avant tout – d'identifier ce que le théâtre apporte au genre autobiographique et par quel(s) moyen(s) il permet de le renouveler. Le cheminement proposé permet d'observer la genèse et l'évolution du théâtre autobiographique dans lequel la matérialité de la scène occupe une place grandissante : l'histoire du genre dans la première partie, la réécriture d'une autobiographie en prose en une pièce dramatique (par Duras et Ionesco) mise en scène par un artiste associé et accompagné dans la seconde partie, la participation active de l'autobiographe à la mise en scène collective de sa pièce intime (Anouilh, Grumberg) dans la troisième partie, la déconstruction du texte dramatique préexistant cédant le premier rôle au plateau (Różewicz, Kantor, Podehl) dans la quatrième partie. C'est ainsi que le mélange de l'onirisme et de la plasticité (Mądzik, Znorko) constitue en quelque sorte l'aboutissement de cette forme d'expression de soi et permet de saisir au mieux l'essence-même du théâtre autobiographique qui ne doit plus raconter la vie de l'autobiographe, mais la recréer dans l'espace. / Since the Seventies of the twentieth century literary autobiography has been arousing deep interest among the researchers and a plethora of critical works have been written on the issue. Yet to this day there is no comprehensive resarch work on the subject. In consideration of a surprising discrepancy between the existing theatre practice and the missing theory, theorisation and classification of this problematic category seems indispensable. This doctoral thesis, the title of which refers to the work of Philippe Lejeune entitled « Pro the autobiography », sees the crisis of forms (the dramatic and theatre forms) and literary genres (the autobiographical genre) a reason for the genesis of dramatic-theatrical autobiography, the story of which will be followed starting with Restif de La Bretonne's « The life's play ».Taking into consideration the development of the autobiographical theatre after the Second World War (the general history of which influenced formation of the intimate history of the autobiographical authors subjected to analysis), the present thesis takes on the task of analysis of the relationship between autobiography and the European theatre of the second half of twentieth century. The selected works present the profiles of dramatic authors fully dedicated to staging the story of their lives : starting with the process of writing a play, through stage design and stage direction to acting or/and stage presence. The selection criteria regarding the analysed works (the six principal playwrights being Anouilh, Duras, Grumberg, Ionesco, Kantor, Różewicz) are based on the direct relationship between the dramatic writers and a theatre performance and take up the issues of total creation, form-genre metamorphosis of works situated on the border between (auto)biography, historical memoirs and diary as well as the possibility of staging the autobiography and reconstruction of one's self and one's past through the medium of a performance.The aim of this treatise is not only presentation of theorisation and periodisation of the autobiographical theatre through distinction of the specifics of each of the analysed works and pointing out the common features but also presenting the elements the theatre introduces to the autobiographical genre and the way it enables its renewal. The suggested way of subject presentation allows to follow the development of the autobiographical theatre where the stage materiality plays increasingly significant role : the first part is dedicated to the analysis of the genre history, while the second one – to the issue of transcribing and transforming the autobiographical prose into a stage play (based on the example of Duras and Ionesco) directed by a thrid party in presence of the author, the third one – to the issue of active participation of the author in the process of collective staging of his autobiographical work (based on the example of Anouilh and Grumberg), the fourth one – to the issue of deconstruction of a dramatic text giving way to the theatre stage (the theatre of Różewicz, Kantor, Podehl). Thus the symbiosis of onirism and graphicality (the visual theatre of Mądzik or Znorko) becomes in a way the crowning of this form of personal statement and allows to capture the essence of autobiographical theatre the aim of which is not telling life but its reconstruction in the space. / Since the Seventies of the twentieth century literary autobiography has been arousing deep interest among the researchers and a plethora of critical works have been written on the issue. Yet to this day there is no comprehensive resarch work on the subject. In consideration of a surprising discrepancy between the existing theatre practice and the missing theory, theorisation and classification of this problematic category seems indispensable. This doctoral thesis, the title of which refers to the work of Philippe Lejeune entitled « Pro the autobiography », sees the crisis of forms (the dramatic and theatre forms) and literary genres (the autobiographical genre) a reason for the genesis of dramatic-theatrical autobiography, the story of which will be followed starting with Restif de La Bretonne’s « The life’s play ».Taking into consideration the development of the autobiographical theatre after the Second World War (the general history of which influenced formation of the intimate history of the autobiographical authors subjected to analysis), the present thesis takes on the task of analysis of the relationship between autobiography and the European theatre of the second half of twentieth century. The selected works present the profiles of dramatic authors fully dedicated to staging the story of their lives : starting with the process of writing a play, through stage design and stage direction to acting or/and stage presence. The selection criteria regarding the analysed works (the six principal playwrights being Anouilh, Duras, Grumberg, Ionesco, Kantor, Różewicz) are based on the direct relationship between the dramatic writers and a theatre performance and take up the issues of total creation, form-genre metamorphosis of works situated on the border between (auto)biography, historical memoirs and diary as well as the possibility of staging the autobiography and reconstruction of one’s self and one’s past through the medium of a performance.The aim of this treatise is not only presentation of theorisation and periodisation of the autobiographical theatre through distinction of the specifics of each of the analysed works and pointing out the common features but also presenting the elements the theatre introduces to the autobiographical genre and the way it enables its renewal. The suggested way of subject presentation allows to follow the development of the autobiographical theatre where the stage materiality plays increasingly significant role : the first part is dedicated to the analysis of the genre history, while the second one – to the issue of transcribing and transforming the autobiographical prose into a stage play (based on the example of Duras and Ionesco) directed by a thrid party in presence of the author, the third one – to the issue of active participation of the author in the process of collective staging of his autobiographical work (based on the example of Anouilh and Grumberg), the fourth one – to the issue of deconstruction of a dramatic text giving way to the theatre stage (the theatre of Różewicz, Kantor, Podehl). Thus the symbiosis of onirism and graphicality (the visual theatre of Mądzik or Znorko) becomes in a way the crowning of this form of personal statement and allows to capture the essence of autobiographical theatre the aim of which is not telling life but its reconstruction in the space.

This thesis closely examines the utilisation of dramatic characters’ comments on matters of literary and theatrical criticism. This phenomenon shaped a trend in European theatre during the first half of the twentieth century, and Egyptian theatre in the second half of the century. My main hypotheses are, firstly, that dramatic characters’ comments on literary and theatrical matters of criticism respond to specific problems that challenge theatre practice. Thus, my reading of literary and theatrical criticism within the dramatic texts studied in my thesis focuses on this criticism’s reformative function to rectify the crisis that faces theatre practice in general, rather than playwrights’ individual motives, such as responding to their critics. Secondly, socio-political, economic, and cultural aspects shape historical circumstances, which influence the current state of the theatre industry. Therefore, although Egyptian plays are noticeably influenced by European metatheatre, Egyptian playwrights utilise these borrowed techniques to highlight specific problems of Egyptian theatre such as the corrupt administration of governmental theatre and censorship. Finally, while Egyptian plays exploit European metatheatrical techniques, Egyptian playwrights claimed their works as a revival of intrinsically anti-illusionist traditional forms of entertainment such as the shadow play and Karagöz. This claim reflected increasing calls for pure Egyptian theatre, as part of the anti-Western jingoistic discourse of the political regime of the 1950s. In order to examine these assumptions, my theoretical approach draws from the fields of metatheatrical studies; literary and performance studies of parody and intertextuality; the history of European and Egyptian theatre; sociological, political and cultural studies; theories of modern criticism, and critical reviews. My contribution to the field of metatheatrical studies is in highlighting the reformative function of literary and theatrical criticism, whether as a discourse or a metatheatrical device, within a group of European plays that belong to different movements of the avant-garde during the first half of the twentieth century. More significantly, my study investigates the same phenomenon in Egyptian plays that, since the 1980s, have gradually been marginalised as fringe theatre and neglected by academic studies.

Depuis quelques années, certains metteurs en scènes européens prennent des initiatives particulièrement audacieuses dans leurs adaptations de textes classiques, coupant le texte, modifiant l’ordre des monologues et allant jusqu’à injecter des morceaux de textes écrits par eux ou bien issus d’autres oeuvre littéraires. Ils n’hésitent plus à "se mettre en scène", c’est-à-dire à traiter avant tout leurs propres questions existentielles par l’intermédiaire des textes classiques, se libérant ainsi de toute pression exercée sur eux par les interprétations textuelles faisant autorité ou bien par les représentations de ces textes dans l’imaginaire collectif, et emmenant les textes classiques dans un "ailleurs" très personnel. Leurs mises en scène dépassent la fragmentation et le désordre propres au théâtre postmoderne et s’attachent au contraire à raconter une histoire cohérente, centrée sur les préoccupations intimes du metteur en scène. Ce nouveau type de mises en scène s’appuie sur des influences diverses, depuis André Antoine jusqu’à Heiner Müller, en passant par Stanislavski, Artaud et Brecht, et constitue une nouvelle étape dans le processus d’autonomisation de l’art de la mise en scène à l'oeuvre depuis le XIXème siècle. Le corpus de cette thèse comprend quatre récentes adaptations (réalisées entre 2008 et 2011) de textes classiques : Hamlet de Thomas Ostermeier, Hamlet de Nikolaï Kolyada, Roméo et Juliette d’Olivier Py et Un tramway de Krzysztof Warlikowski (à partir de Un tramway nommé Désir de Tennessee Williams). Il comprend également une mise en pratique sous la forme d’une adaptation, Pygmalion - J’ai créé une femme (à partir de Pygmalion de George Bernard Shaw), réalisée par l’auteur de la thèse en 2014 au sein des Théâtres Nationaux de Turquie, et ayant permis de tester les arguments et conclusions tirés des analyses précédentes. / In recent years, some European directors are taking particularly bold initiatives in their adaptations of classic texts, cutting the text, changing the order of monologues and even injecting pieces of texts written by them or from other literary works. They do not hesitate to "stage themselves", that is to say, to treat primarily their own existential questions through the classic texts, thus releasing any pressure exerted on them by the authoritative textual interpretations or by the representations of these texts in the collective imagination, and taking the classic texts in a very personal "elsewhere". Their stagings exceed the fragmentation and disorder specific to postmodern theater and focus instead on telling a coherent story, centered on the intimate concerns of the director. This new type of staging draws on diverse influences from André Antoine to Heiner Müller through Stanislavski, Brecht and Artaud, and represents a new stage in the empowerment process of the art of staging at work since the nineteenth century. The corpus of this thesis includes four recent adaptations (conducted between 2008 and 2011) of classic texts: Thomas Ostermeier’s Hamlet, Nikolai Kolyada’s Hamlet, Olivier Py’s Romeo and Juliet, and Krzysztof Warlikowski’s A Streetcar (from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams). It also includes a practical application in the form of an adaptation, Pygmalion - I Created A Woman (from Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw), directed by the author of the thesis in 2014 in the Turkish State Theatres and having tested the arguments and conclusions from previous analyzes.

The American GI’s experience in hospital during World War II is absent from official military histories, most scholarly works, and even many oral history collections. Utilizing the papers of WWII infantryman, Leon Standifer, this thesis offers the reader a rare glimpse of WWII military hospital life and chronicles one soldier’s journey from willing obedience to subversive action. This thesis compares the stated goals and procedures of the US Army medical department to the experience of Leon Standifer, an infantryman who served in northern France during the last year of the war and the American occupation of Bavaria, whose service was marked by several periods of protracted hospitalization. Over the course of five hospitalizations, during which Standifer was treated for bullet wounds, trench foot, and pneumonia, he consistently wrote letters to his family describing his experience. A careful reading of Standifer’s wartime correspondence in conjunction with his published and unpublished writings, secondary source material, and military records, suggest that while isolated in the hospital, after killing and experiencing the death of his comrades, Standifer lost his desire to fight. He began to make calculated decisions based on his knowledge of the military medical system in an attempt to ensure his survival and control the remainder of his military service.

La thèse propose une lecture comparée de l’emploi du grotesque dans les théâtres français, polonais, belge francophone, germanophone, italien et espagnol. L’analyse comparée des écritures dramatiques comme du discours littéraire permet de dégager les spécificités du grotesque et de sa réception dans les diverses aires culturelles. La première partie est consacrée à la mise en place théorique de la notion dans les arts, des arts décoratifs à l’art dramatique, de la Renaissance au vingtième siècle. Une attention particulière est portée à la danse grotesque, jusque-là peu étudiée, ainsi qu’aux divergences entre les discours critiques occidental et oriental. La seconde partie constitue le cœur du travail par l’étude comparée des procédés grotesques selon trois axes : la déformation, la démesure et l’hybridité. Celle-ci permet de mettre en valeur les fonctions dramatiques de l’emploi de la marionnette et de la pantomime ainsi que l’inspiration des arts du cirque, de la foire et du cabaret. La troisième partie analyse l’hypothèse du genre dramatique grotesque en Europe au vingtième siècle. Une fois établi le cadre théorique de la réflexion sur le genre et au regard de la production dramatique la plus contemporaine, l’étude s’achève sur la détermination de la place du grotesque dans la création artistique comme dans la critique littéraire actuelle. En remettant en cause la périodisation traditionnelle du théâtre européen du siècle dernier, la thèse entend rendre sa place au grotesque dans la critique dramatique contemporaine comme mise en forme du difforme. / This thesis proposes a comparative reading of the use of grotesque in French, Polish, French-speaking Belgian, German-speaking Italian and Spanish theatre so as to determinate the specificities of the grotesque and its reception in different cultural areas. It focuses in the first part on the theory of the notion in arts, from decorative to dramatic art, from Renaissance to the twentieth century. Special attention is given to the grotesque dance, which has been thus far insufficiently studied, and to the discrepancies between western and eastern critical discourses. The comparative analysis of the grotesque is conducted along three axes: deformation, excessiveness and hybridity. It emphasises the function of marionette, pantomime and the inspiration of circus, carnival and cabaret. The last part of the thesis concentrates on the hypothesis of a grotesque dramatic genre in Europe in twentieth century. Once established the theoretical basis of the reflexion upon genre, and in view of contemporary dramatic production, the thesis closes with the determination of the place of the grotesque in the creation and in the criticism. By calling into question traditional periodisation of European twentieth theatre, this thesis aims at giving its place to the grotesque in contemporary dramatic criticism as the shaping of the misshapen.

En retraçant le développement des théories de la comédie dans la philosophie occidentale, cette thèse avance que des préjugés l’ont empêchée d’être reconnue comme un genre littéraire sérieux. Il est montré que la place donnée à la comédie comme genre mineur pendant plus de deux mille ans correspond à un modèle éthique qui affirme, en distinguant le réel de l'Idéal, une vision néo-platonicienne de l'existence. Partant de l’analyse d’un phénomène théâtral précis dans l’Europe de l’après-guerre et à travers de nombreux exemples choisis parmi des pièces de cinq dramaturges différents, cette thèse propose trois principaux critères de la comédie : le statut ontologique des personnages comiques, la relation paradoxale de la comédie au monde des apparences, et son aptitude à permettre l'impossible. Opérant ainsi un renversement total des systèmes de valeurs et remettant en question une vision binaire, la comédie brouille les clivages entre l’abstrait et le concret, le mécanique et l’organique, et au bout du compte entre la vie et la mort. Il est démontré comment ce renversement s’accomplit de manière linguistique, métaphorique ou encore dramaturgique. L’étude conclut que la comédie bouleverse l'ordre socio-symbolique qui repose sur la logique du possible. / By tracing the development of theories of comedy within Western philosophy, this thesis claims that anti-comic prejudices prevented comedy from being recognized as a serious genre. Comedy’s inferior status for over two thousand years is shown to correspond to an ethical model that distinguishes the real from the Ideal and affirms a Neo-Platonic vision of existence. Through numerous examples taken from a particular phenomenon of post-war European theatre comprising five different playwrights, this thesis proposes three primary characteristics of comedy: the ontological instability of comic characters, comedy’s paradoxical relation to the world of appearances, and comedy’s willingness to accommodate the impossible. By throwing binaries into question and promoting a complete reversal of dominant value systems, comedy blurs the lines of distinction between the abstract and the concrete, the mechanical and the organic and, ultimately, between life and death. Demonstrating how this reversal is accomplished linguistically, metaphorically, or dramaturgically, this study concludes that comedy subverts the socio-symbolic order that relies upon the logic of possibility.