The short play Jules is a response to August Strindberg's Miss Julie and Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie. Jules is the story of a wealthy young woman celebrating her Sweet 16 birthday at a lavish "Juicy Couture" theme party in Orange County, California. At the party, her best friend tries to disuade her from falling for a young Mexican immigrant who is catering the party. Jules explores the tensions between rich and poor, the attitude of the privilaged towards the working class, the consequences of relationships, and the attitude that characterizes our "girls gone wild" era.

Text in English / Although initially dismissed as superficial, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, and Patrick Marber’s Closer use the theme of marital betrayal as a trope to investigate metatheatrical and epistemological issues. This study aims to demonstrate how these three plays define and explore the concept of authenticity within the fictional as well as the actual world; how arbitrary the construction and mediation of the characters’ identities are, not only from their own perspective, but also from the audience’s; the significance of the audience’s role in these plays and how issues of authenticity, fictionality and dishonesty impact on a genre that depends on illusion. This study intends to provide a new interpretation of these three texts through an analysis drawn from postmodern and poststructuralist theories, concerning the concept of authenticity within art and language. This study finds that the fictional worlds in these plays are created through mediation, which includes everyday language as well as complex works of art. Authenticity is shown to be an elusive concept. Language is either unsuccessfully used to force authentic responses from characters, or as a shield. In Betrayal, language functions as a protective barrier, preventing the characters from knowing one another. The Real Thing suggests that although inauthenticity may be established, the inverse is not necessarily true. In Closer, the characters try in vain to access authenticity through different registers of language. Furthermore, neither the body nor the mind is shown to be the locus of authenticity in Closer. Within the postmodern context where originality is impossible, mimicry is not seen as something external and inauthentic, but as inextricably part of human existence. The audience is drawn into the fictional world of these plays as its members are able to identify with the disillusionment of the characters and their inability to form a definitive view of each other. Simultaneously, the audience is ousted from the fictional world by being reminded of the author’s presence through metatheatrical devices. These plays take advantage of the fictional status of theatre to explore issues of authenticity, positioning them in direct opposition to postdramatic and verbatim plays. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Theory of Literature)

Text in English / Although initially dismissed as superficial, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, and Patrick Marber’s Closer use the theme of marital betrayal as a trope to investigate metatheatrical and epistemological issues. This study aims to demonstrate how these three plays define and explore the concept of authenticity within the fictional as well as the actual world; how arbitrary the construction and mediation of the characters’ identities are, not only from their own perspective, but also from the audience’s; the significance of the audience’s role in these plays and how issues of authenticity, fictionality and dishonesty impact on a genre that depends on illusion. This study intends to provide a new interpretation of these three texts through an analysis drawn from postmodern and poststructuralist theories, concerning the concept of authenticity within art and language. This study finds that the fictional worlds in these plays are created through mediation, which includes everyday language as well as complex works of art. Authenticity is shown to be an elusive concept. Language is either unsuccessfully used to force authentic responses from characters, or as a shield. In Betrayal, language functions as a protective barrier, preventing the characters from knowing one another. The Real Thing suggests that although inauthenticity may be established, the inverse is not necessarily true. In Closer, the characters try in vain to access authenticity through different registers of language. Furthermore, neither the body nor the mind is shown to be the locus of authenticity in Closer. Within the postmodern context where originality is impossible, mimicry is not seen as something external and inauthentic, but as inextricably part of human existence. The audience is drawn into the fictional world of these plays as its members are able to identify with the disillusionment of the characters and their inability to form a definitive view of each other. Simultaneously, the audience is ousted from the fictional world by being reminded of the author’s presence through metatheatrical devices. These plays take advantage of the fictional status of theatre to explore issues of authenticity, positioning them in direct opposition to postdramatic and verbatim plays. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Theory of Literature)

O presente trabalho explora a questão da interdisciplinaridade e da transposição de obras literárias para o cinema. Focalizando a adaptação de textos dramáticos ao cinema, o estudo propõe em um primeiro momento uma investigação teórica sobre gênero ficcional mimético; drama, a partir da perspectiva do jogo dramático como elemento construtor do metadrama implícito e explícito; transtextualidade e cinema. Num segundo momento, a investigação analisa dois textos dramáticos, Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? , de Edward Albee, e Closer , de Patrick Marber, e suas respectivas transposições para o cinema pelo diretor Mike Nichols, examinando os elementos e recursos que os autores utilizam para construir o jogo dramático. Posteriormente, realizase uma análise comparativa entre os textos dramáticos e entre suas adaptações cinematográficas, buscando pontos de contato e de afastamento entre as obras, priorizando elementos denotadores do jogo dramático, além de características transtextuais que possibilitam a manutenção ou a alteração de significados entre os textos dramáticos e seus respectivos filmes. / This paper explores interdisciplinary aspects related to the transposition of dramatic texts into films. First, a theoretical investigation is conducted on mimetic genre, transtextuality; on drama, from the point of view of the game as a dramatic element to build implicit and explicit metadrama, and film adaptation. Secondly, this dissertation analyzes two plays, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? , by Edward Albee, and Closer , by Patrick Marber, as well as their film adaptations by director Mike Nichols, and examines the elements and features that the authors use to create the dramatic games. Later, the plays and their film adaptations are contrasted in order to investigate elements of dramatic games, and transtextual characteristics that allow the maintenance or the alteration of meaning between the plays and their correspondent films.

O presente trabalho explora a questão da interdisciplinaridade e da transposição de obras literárias para o cinema. Focalizando a adaptação de textos dramáticos ao cinema, o estudo propõe em um primeiro momento uma investigação teórica sobre gênero ficcional mimético; drama, a partir da perspectiva do jogo dramático como elemento construtor do metadrama implícito e explícito; transtextualidade e cinema. Num segundo momento, a investigação analisa dois textos dramáticos, Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? , de Edward Albee, e Closer , de Patrick Marber, e suas respectivas transposições para o cinema pelo diretor Mike Nichols, examinando os elementos e recursos que os autores utilizam para construir o jogo dramático. Posteriormente, realizase uma análise comparativa entre os textos dramáticos e entre suas adaptações cinematográficas, buscando pontos de contato e de afastamento entre as obras, priorizando elementos denotadores do jogo dramático, além de características transtextuais que possibilitam a manutenção ou a alteração de significados entre os textos dramáticos e seus respectivos filmes. / This paper explores interdisciplinary aspects related to the transposition of dramatic texts into films. First, a theoretical investigation is conducted on mimetic genre, transtextuality; on drama, from the point of view of the game as a dramatic element to build implicit and explicit metadrama, and film adaptation. Secondly, this dissertation analyzes two plays, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? , by Edward Albee, and Closer , by Patrick Marber, as well as their film adaptations by director Mike Nichols, and examines the elements and features that the authors use to create the dramatic games. Later, the plays and their film adaptations are contrasted in order to investigate elements of dramatic games, and transtextual characteristics that allow the maintenance or the alteration of meaning between the plays and their correspondent films.

O presente trabalho explora a questão da interdisciplinaridade e da transposição de obras literárias para o cinema. Focalizando a adaptação de textos dramáticos ao cinema, o estudo propõe em um primeiro momento uma investigação teórica sobre gênero ficcional mimético; drama, a partir da perspectiva do jogo dramático como elemento construtor do metadrama implícito e explícito; transtextualidade e cinema. Num segundo momento, a investigação analisa dois textos dramáticos, Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? , de Edward Albee, e Closer , de Patrick Marber, e suas respectivas transposições para o cinema pelo diretor Mike Nichols, examinando os elementos e recursos que os autores utilizam para construir o jogo dramático. Posteriormente, realizase uma análise comparativa entre os textos dramáticos e entre suas adaptações cinematográficas, buscando pontos de contato e de afastamento entre as obras, priorizando elementos denotadores do jogo dramático, além de características transtextuais que possibilitam a manutenção ou a alteração de significados entre os textos dramáticos e seus respectivos filmes. / This paper explores interdisciplinary aspects related to the transposition of dramatic texts into films. First, a theoretical investigation is conducted on mimetic genre, transtextuality; on drama, from the point of view of the game as a dramatic element to build implicit and explicit metadrama, and film adaptation. Secondly, this dissertation analyzes two plays, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? , by Edward Albee, and Closer , by Patrick Marber, as well as their film adaptations by director Mike Nichols, and examines the elements and features that the authors use to create the dramatic games. Later, the plays and their film adaptations are contrasted in order to investigate elements of dramatic games, and transtextual characteristics that allow the maintenance or the alteration of meaning between the plays and their correspondent films.