Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-68). Also available in print.

The characters of Genet's drama live in a world which is inadequate to certain basic emotional needs. The shortcomings of this world can be compensated for only in imagination, and so Genet's characters fantasize modes of living and social roles and gestures denied to them in real life. The identities and attitudes they create in fantasy are therefore the opposites of the same factors in life. Thus all the polarities in Genet's drama stem from the basic dichotomy between reality and illusion. The average man tries to keep reality and illusion distinct, but Genet deliberately confounds the two so that the identities he creates are continuously in a state of flux. When these identities become indefinable, contraries coincide. Genet's significant contribution to modern drama is accomplished in his deft exploitation of the interchange-ability of reality and illusion by which he gives theatrical expression to his view of the unity of opposites. This thesis is a study of four of the most closely related sets of polarities in Genet's drama: the central duality of reality and illusion and the three related dualities of life and death, love and hate and anarchy and order. It is demonstrated that while Genet recognizes these conflicting absolutes as unalterable facts of existence, he also shows them as providing the equilibrium necessary in turbulent human relations. The three major plays of Genet - The Balcony, The Blacks, and The Screens -are analysed from both a dramatic and a theatrical perspective. Although the examination of these plays in chronological order does not reveal any remarkable change in Genet's outlook as a dramatist, we do see a marked progress in his crafsmanship from The Balcony to The Screens. In the course of these three plays he develops and refines the dr&matic and theatrical expression of his fundamental concern with the dialectic of dualities, moving closer to this ultimate resolution of these dualities into a philosophy of nothingness. / Arts, Faculty of / Theatre and Film, Department of / Graduate

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université Paris 7-Denis Diderot, U.F.R. Sciences des textes et documents, 1997-1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 401-420).

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Th. 3e cycle--Lett.--Paris 3, 1983.

No description available.

Among twentieth-century French playwrights, Jean Genet is one of the more elusive. His major plays, Le Balcon, Les Negres and Les Paravents, have elicited much literary criticism. However, seldom have critics closely examined the grammatical function of language in Genet's dramatic dialogue. This study attempts to focus upon one particular type of character, discovered through use of language, found in two of Genet's major plays, Les Negres and Le Balcon. It is an assessment of the manipulating character who uses certain rhetorical devices while attempting persuasion of another character. The method used borrows from Peter France's book, Racine's Rhetoric (1965)»an analysis of language used in seventeenth-century theatre. France's study examines persuasive rhetoric under two different rubrics: persuasive language in which speakers express overt emotions and covert emotions. We are limiting this study to that dialogue in Jean Genet's drama which reveals emotions, leaving to another study its complementary side. Rhetorical devices are here further confined to three groups only: imperatives, exhortations and insults. The study searches Genet's dramatic dialogue for effective uses of these rhetorical devices. The study examines such functional rhetoric in the two plays wherein manipulating characters are the most apparent, although similar techniques appeared earlier in Genet's shorter works, Haute surveillance and Les Bonnes. Role-playing, the most obvious in Les Negres, is found to be closely associated with attempted manipulation. Le Balcon is next studied, as the persuading characters are less obvious. The study finds that certain characters in Les Negres and Le Balcon attempt--and at times effectively manage--persuasion of other characters by use of imperatives, exhortations and insults. Imperatives are most often used to define a role, to direct role-playing or to define a group goal. Archibald and La Reine use imperatives for these purposes in Les Negres, as does Mme Irma in Le Balcon. We also watch L'Envoye1 per-saude Irma to assume the role of La Reine. Other manipulators in Le Balcon are Les Trois Photographes, who define roles for L'Eveque, Le Juge and Le GeSnSral. We find that FelicitS employs exhortation in order to instill a sense of pride in les negres. We also find that some exhortations--when single words or negatives—are ineffectual admonishment. Vertu attempts to sway Village's narrative in Les Negres, but with negative results. In Le Balcon, effective exhortationists are Irma, who manages to frighten Carmen into remaining within le Grand Balcon, and Roger, who attempts to keep Chantal from becoming the figure-head for the insurrection. Irma uses the repeated imperative—clear exhortation--and succeeds: Carmen remains. Roger uses the less forceful exhortation—admonishment--and Chantal eludes him. Even though the admonishing exhortation fails to sway its interlocutor, we find its use reveals a character's psychological motivation. The third rhetorical device, insult, is seen to operate effectively in Les Negres, as the "hatred of white" is an integral part of the play-within- the-play. There is no equivalent 'theme in Le Balcon; thus, the use of insult there is reduced to sparse name-calling. In so examining specific dialogue, the study adds depth to some of the rather puppet-like characters in two of Jean Genet's dramas, adding one facet to existing psychological analysis. This type of textual examination of dialogue could be rewarding in a future study of its alternate side: dialogue which conceals the emotions. In addition, an evolution may be discovered by examining dialogue in Genet's last play, Les Paravents, where the manipulating character seems to go underground, exchanging role-playing for a more straight-forward type of characterization. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Ce mémoire de maîtrise en études littéraires analyse la métaphore de la blessure dans les quatre essais esthétiques de Jean Genêt : L'atelier d'Alberto Giacometti (1957), Le funambule (1958), Le secret de Rembrandt (1958), Ce qui est resté d'un Rembrandt déchiré en petits carrés bien réguliers, et foutu aux chiottes (1967). Cette étude combine deux approches théoriques : la thématique bachelardienne et la sociologie de l'art théorisée par Pierre Bourdieu, Alain Darbel et Jean Dubuffet. Les concepts bachelardiens qui font l'objet de cette étude sont les motifs thématiques liés à l'espace et au processus de la rêverie créatrice. Cette approche dévoile les images qui structurent l'évocation littéraire des arts plastiques. Ces images sont ensuite analysées dans le cadre de l'institutionnalisation de l'art. Les concepts esthétiques de Genêt s'avèrent extrêmement importants dans la réflexion sur l'art menée au cours de la seconde moitié du vingtième siècle. Plusieurs critiques littéraires ont occulté la place de la pensée esthétique dans l'œuvre de Genêt. Ce mémoire a pour but de rétablir une juste perspective quant à cette pensée