Zugl.: Giessen, Univ., Diss., 2008

Univ., Diss.--Cambridge, 1997.

Thesis advisor: Stephen C. Bold / Hagiography, or accounts of saints' lives, persists in literature through the ages. It accompanies historical movements and moments, serves as a memorial and remembrance, and often sends a message, explicit or implicit, relevant to the reader's contemporary world. In the early 17th century, hagiographic plays were a brief vogue on the recently renewed Parisian secular stage. In recent years, there has been a reawakening to this dramatic corpus, to its value and its challenges. The current work continues the effort to shed light upon the genre, which is often seen as mediocre when compared to its counterparts that resulted from the classical renaissance of the Grand Siècle in France. I limit my corpus to hagiographic tales of Christian martyrs (some of whom were not yet canonized in this period). The protagonists typically follow a life of pilgrimage. A secular period is followed by conversion, ascetic life, and finally death at the hands of detractors. These are often political, religious or emotional tyrant figures. Most of the saintly heroes in the corpus live at the time of Roman persecutions; others come from a more recent past, such as Thomas More and Joan of Arc. My objective is two-fold: on the one hand, I strive to establish the corpus's relationship to 17th-century religion, by exploring the Jesuit influence on dramatists and reflecting on the seeds of the "querelle de la moralité du théâtre"; on the other hand, I attempt to establish the corpus's relationship to the art of theater, at a time when classical secular theater was emerging in France. Moreover, I aim to affirm the compatibility between church and theater through their successful conciliation in the corpus. This compatibility is further justified by drawing a metatheatrical discourse from the texts, relevant to the time in which they are produced and by the plays' employment of the topos of theatrum mundi. The two objectives intersect in the ultimate goal of including and interpreting this genre as an essential part of a milestone in French intellectual, religious and cultural history. The first chapter focuses on the aesthetic background of the period, with an emphasis on the Baroque spiritualizing impulse in the arts, stemming from the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent. I also provide the foundations of theater within theater as a mode of dramatic expression common in the 17th-century repertoire, which becomes necessary for a better understanding of the metatheatrical discourse perceived in the hagiographic corpus. The second, third and fourth chapters focus on the individual plays, with a close reading and analysis of their form and content. After addressing the history of religious theater and its underlying message, I turn to the characteristics of the corpus and analyze strategies used by dramatists to adapt to (or skirt) the progressively more restrained regulations of classical secular theater. I then reflect upon the performativity and theatricality of the plays and discern the metatheatrical discourse in specific dramas. Finally, the fifth chapter is a holistic embodiment of the previous chapters, with an in-depth study and interpretation of Jean Rotrou's Le Véritable saint Genest. From my interpretations and reinterpretations, I conclude that this corpus, short-lived on the Paris professional stage, informed the debate surrounding theater in the 17th century in France, as well as in the polemic regarding its relation to the church. The decline of the genre, occurring around 1650, reflects and symbolizes the progression from a literature of the Counter-Reformation, of the European Baroque, to a literature with an independent French identity, rooted in neo-classical and Aristotelian reinterpretations. Following Lionel Abel's definition of metatheater, I support the idea that this corpus contributed positively to an aesthetic and cultural transformation nascent in French society at this particular historical moment. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Romance Languages and Literatures.

Shakespeare uses metadrama as a rhetorical vehicle for responding to antitheatricalism; realistic drama and staged theatricality therefore coexist in his plays. The cultural context of the early modern era, especially its antitheatrical rhetoric and the predominance of theatricality throughout the structures of its society, illumines the interaction of metadrama and antitheatricality Shakespeare's plays, particularly Troilus and Cressida and King Lear. By failing to consider adequately the unique nature of the emergence of early modern theater and the equally distinct reaction to its popularity, previous scholarship considering antitheatricality has exhibited essentialism and a universalizing tendency similar to that of the antitheatricalists. The paucity of specifically protheatrical response in prose to the immense antitheatrical work of polemicists such as William Prynne and to antitheatrical tracts and publications signals the presence of protheatrical response within the literature of the stage: its plays. Metadramatic critics have noted that metadrama provides a subtle means of establishing a connection between actors and their audience and that it serves as a means of interrogating various deployments of theatrical power and the motives implied by its use. Troilus and Cressida celebrates, interrogates, and reproves the theater, engaging the proponents and detractors of the theater through depictions of Ulysses and Pandarus as effective and ineffective interior directors, respectively. Ulysses's militaristic drive toward victory at all costs demonstrates his affinity to the figure of the stage Machiavel, while his seemingly inexplicable hostility toward Achilles similarly marks his connection to the figure of the Vice. Pandarus's relation to theatricality highlights the negative associations of theater and prostitution apparent in the works of the antitheatricalists. His self-delusory propensity to motivate others to actions to which they are already predisposed mocks and calls into question the assertion that theater exerts motivational power over its audience. Literary critics considering King Lear observe that identity loss underpins the tragic process apparent in the plays' protagonists. Depictions of staged theatrical ability and inability and positive depictions of antitheatrical Puritanism pervade King Lear. The deployment of theatricality in the play both emphasizes its creative and soteriological function and embodies the harmful potential of dramaturgical art.

Cette réflexion porte sur l’influence de la poésie lyrique dans les œuvres théâtrales du romantisme au symbolisme. En essayant de confronter les corpus du drame romantique et du théâtre symboliste et en exhumant celui du théâtre des poètes parnassiens et de leurs contemporains, elle entend dégager des constantes et mettre en lumière une crise du théâtre aristotélicien, dont les effets se prolongent jusque dans les dramaturgies de l’extrême contemporain. Mais penser un théâtre de poètes, autrement dit un théâtre qui intègrerait les propriétés de la poésie lyrique au sein du genre dramatique, revient à soulever un certain nombre de paradoxes.Ce théâtre des poètes est d’abord un théâtre qui minore de plus en plus le poids de l’action, au profit de l’expression lyrique. Le drame et le système actantiel qu’il véhicule tendent à se réduire à une seule situation, unique et statique, de laquelle les conflits intersubjectifs ont été évacués. La poésie lyrique, de par sa subjectivité, intériorise le drame et c’est désormais au sein d’un même sujet qu’il faut chercher les composantes dramatiques. Son intérêt pour l’intériorité conduit le théâtre des poètes à délaisser le système de la représentation mimétique, parce qu’il préfère, à la réalité objective et concrète, le domaine plus abstrait des idées. Cette subjectivité qu’importe la poésie dans le genre théâtral pousse finalement les dramaturges à braver le tabou absolu du théâtre aristotélicien, à savoir la présence du poète dans son œuvre : la lyricisation du théâtre entraîne ainsi la manifestation du poète dans sa pièce. / This reflection deals with the influence of lyrical poetry over theatrical works from romanticism to symbolism. By confronting the corpuses of the romantic drama and the symbolist theater, but also by exhuming the Parnassiens’ theater, it envisions encountering constants and highlighting a crisis of Aristotelian theater whose effects extend up until the most contemporary dramaturgies. But considering the existence of a theater by poets, one that integrates the characteristics of lyrical poetry into the dramatic forms, raises several paradoxes. This theater by poets is before all one that reduces more and more the importance of the action, in favour of the lyrical expression. The drama and the actantial model it implies get converted in one unique and static situation, where all the intersubjective conflicts have been erased. Because of its subjectivity, lyrical poetry internalizes the drama: and thus all the dramatic components have to be searched for inside the subject. Its interest for interiority leads the theater by poets to abandon the mimetic representation system, because of its favouring of the abstraction of ideas over the objective and material reality. This subjectivity imported by poetry into the dramatic form explains why the dramatists break the absolute taboo of Aristotelian theater: the poet’s presence inside his play. The lyricisation of theater entails the poet’s manifestation in a form where it is prohibited.

My dissertation examines how early modern metatheater enabled the Renaissance stage and its original audience to develop a complex and symbiotic relationship. Metatheater--by which I mean a particular mode of theatre, in which actors, playwrights, dramatic characters and/or (in particular) audiences express or share a perception of drama as a fictional and theatrical construct--pervaded Renaissance drama, not by simple happenstance but arising almost inevitably from the complex context within which it functioned. The early modern stage was a particularly conflicted forum, which monarchs and playwrights, town fathers and actors, censors and audiences, impresarios and anti-theatricalists, all strove to influence and control. The use of the metatheatrical mode allowed playwrights and players to better navigate this difficult, sometimes dangerous, space. In particular, the development of Renaissance metatheater derived from (and, simultaneously, affected) the unique nature of its original spectators, who practiced a much more actively engaged participation in the theater than is often recognized. Performers and playwrights regularly used metatheatricality to adapt to the needs and desires of their audience, and to elicit the intellectual and emotional responses they desired. My study utilizes a historically contextualized approach that emphasizes the material conditions under which Renaissance drama arose and functioned. It begins by examining the influence of the surrounding milieu on the Renaissance stage and its spectators, especially its facilitation of the development and use of metatheater. Then, via close readings of four plays--Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, Shakespeare's Henry V and Antony and Cleopatra, and Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle--the dissertation indicates how varied and versatile early modern metatheater was, and how it responded to and influenced the nature of its audiences. My study demonstrates the centrality of metatheater to early modern theatrical practice, delineates its pervasive influence on the stage-audience relationship in Renaissance theaters, and underlines the influence of material conditions on the creation and dissemination of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. / English

Orientador: Isabella Tardin Cardoso / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T14:07:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rocha_CarolMartinsda_M.pdf: 1639829 bytes, checksum: 7991e0e6cb303ae428ac9305de04cbce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: A peça Cásina (Casina), provável produção do fim da carreira do poeta romano Tito Mácio Plauto (III-II a.C.), carece de observação mais atenta no cenário mais recente dos estudos sobre o autor. É notável que essa comédia, ao que saibamos, não tenha recebido anteriormente tradução em nosso país, sobretudo porque um passar de olhos pelas intrigas e confusões da peça, já nos revela uma infinidade de aspectos da poesia plautina. Em muitos casos se trata de características sutis, muitas das quais têm passado despercebidas para a maioria dos críticos, que notaram sobretudo brincadeiras mais explícitas ali presentes, envolvendo inclusive travestimento e referências a partes pudicas. Como pretendemos ressaltar, outros recursos humorísticos e poéticos abundam em Cásina: desde o próprio nome dos personagens até passagens em que podemos notar teatro dentro do teatro (fenômeno tratado mais recentemente como ?metateatralidade?). A trama, mesmo que típica do drama plautino, constrói-se de tal maneira a destacar de modo especial personagens que em outras peças não recebem tanto realce: as mulheres. Seja no papel da típica matrona plautina (esposa ciumenta), seja num papel contrário (a esposa submissa), seja ainda, na inventividade da escrava, ou até mesmo, na figura de uma falsa mulher, os personagens femininos de Cásina chamam a atenção dos leitores modernos, e, provavelmente, também cativariam o público da época. Nossa tradução e análise da peça buscam, entre outros resultados, proporcionar a percepção de tais efeitos humorísticos e póeticos. Para tanto será necessário observar fatores distintos: possíveis interferências pós-plautinas (pressupostas a partir do prólogo); aspectos de teatro dentro do teatro presentes no texto; o tratamento cauteloso da linguagem plautina / Abstract: The play Casina (Casina), probably a production of the end of the Roman poet's career Titus Maccius Plautus (III-II b. C.), lacks a more exhaustive observation in the recent scenario of the studies about the author. It is noteworthy that, as far as I know, this comedy hadn't received any translation in our country, above all because a look over to the Casina's intrigues and confusions may reveal an infinity of instigating aspects of Plautine poetry. In many cases, subtle characteristics haven't received a proper treatment by the critics that have noted above all tricks more explicit there, involving cross-dressing and references to chaste parts. As I intend to highlight, other humorous and poetics resources also abound in Casina: since the speaking names of the characters until passages where one may note play-within-the-play (phenomenom treated more recently as ?metatheater?). The plot, although typical in the Plautine drama, is built in such a way that emphasizes specially characters that in other plays don't receive much attention: the women. As the typical Plautine matrona (the jealous wife) or in an opposite role (the submissive wife), or, in the inventivity of the female slave, or even in the image of a false woman, the feminine characters of Casina drawn attention of the modern readers and, probably, should have delighted the public of the Plautine epoch. The translation and analysis here proposed aim, among other results, to provide the perception of such humorous and poetics effects. In order to accomplish this task it will be necessary to observe different elements: possible post-Plautine interventions (noted from the prologue); aspects of play-within-the-play noticeable in the text; the cautious treatment of the Plautine language / Mestrado / Linguistica / Mestre em Linguística

Την εργασία απασχολούν οι τεχνικές του θεάτρου εν θεάτρω στη νεοελληνική δραματουργία που χρησιμοποιεί τον αρχαίο μύθο ως ανακλαστικό καθρέπτη, ο οποίος τέμνει τις πλοκές του έργου-πλαισίου και του εγκιβωτισμένου έργου και αναπτύσσει μια ειρωνική μεταγλώσσα, που διαφοροποιεί αισθητικά και υφολογικά την επική και τραγική ποίηση από τη νεωτερική, μεταπολεμική δραματουργία που τις εγκιβωτίζει. Αφού εκτεθούν τα προβλήματα που προκύπτουν από την ευρυχωρία του όρου μεταθέατρο, που «εγκιβωτίζει» το θέατρο εν θεάτρω, ο τελευταίος εξετάζεται ως ειδική μορφή, φόρμα, υπο-είδος και τεχνική, όπως ορίστηκε από τη δραματουργία του μπαρόκ, εκείνη της ρομαντικής ειρωνείας, του Πιραντέλλο, μέχρι τη μεταμπρεχτική και μεταμπεκετική δραματική παραγωγή, για να δοθεί τελικώς έμφαση στην αποκλειστικά αρχαιόθεμη ελληνική και αλλοδαπή δραματική σχετική παραγωγή. Στο corpus περιλαμβάνονται τρία νεοελληνικά αρχαιόμυθα έργα: Η βουή (1997) του Παύλου Μάτεσι, που εγκιβωτίζει ανολοκλήρωτη παράσταση και την αυτοσχέδια πρόβα της, με απαγγελίες και μίμηση μικροεπεισοδίων από την Ιλιάδα, και ανεκδοτολογικό υλικό από την τρωική περιπέτεια, σε ένα έργο-πλαίσιο που επανεξετάζει το μύθο των Ατρειδών, υιοθετώντας ανοίκειες σε αυτόν δομές˙ Η τελευταία πράξη (1998) του Ιάκωβου Καμπανέλλη, όπου, με αφορμή το επικό οδυσσεϊκό παρελθόν και μια προγενέστερη πραγμάτευση του μύθου από το συγγραφέα, στήνεται ένα τριπλό θέαμα με ένα εξωσκηνικό δράμα, ένα αθέατο εσωσκηνικό δράμα και μια ανοιχτή προς όλους δοκιμή, με κεντρική μορφή τον αθέατο, διηγητικό Οδυσσέα, που διεκδικεί νέα οδύσσεια μέσω του θεάτρου˙ και Οι ηθοποιοί (2001) του Γιώργου Σκούρτη, όπου οι ηθοποιοί-χαρακτήρες του διεκδικούν με το εγκιβωτισμένο έργο εγκατάσταση στη «σοβαρή μυθολογία», εμφανίζοντας τον προς παράσταση Αγαμέμνονα ως Βίβλο, στις διατάξεις της οποίας υπάγονται τα περιστατικά των τριών τους, προκειμένου να ελεγχθούν οι εκλεκτικές τους συγγένειες με τους ήρωες του οίκου των Ατρειδών. Η μελέτη στα εν λόγω θεατρικά έργα, των χρήσεων των εγκιβωτισμών παραστάσεων και προβών, σε καθορισμένα ή συγκεχυμένα χρονικά και χωρικά πλαίσια, επιχειρεί να εξηγήσει τις δυνατότητες μετατόπισης ηθοποιών και εξωκειμενικών θεατών σε ρητές ή άρρητες μυθοπλασίες, καθώς και τις δυνατότητες παραβίασης του συνόρου μύθου και πραγματικότητας. Εξηγείται κατά πόσον σε επίπεδο υπερκειμενικής ζενετικής διακειμενικότητας τα υποκείμενα έργα καθορίζουν τη μυθοπλασία του έργου-πλαισίου, του εγκιβωτισμένου ή και των δύο, και αν δικαιώνεται ο χαρακτηρισμός υποκείμενο ως ενθυλακωμένο έργο στο υπερκείμενό του πρωτεύον. Η συνεξέταση συμβάλλει στον έλεγχο τού κατά πόσον η εγκιβωτισμένη ή η πλαισιωτική μυθοπλασία, που αρδεύεται από την προϋπάρχουσα κειμενική τραγική, επική ή άλλη κλασική παράδοση, κυρώνει ή υπονομεύει τις τραγικές δέσεις και λύσεις ή διανοίγει προοπτικές σε νέους μύθους. Μέσα από την εξέταση, διαφαίνεται πώς ο χειρισμός του θεάτρου εν θεάτρω γίνεται ένας χειρισμός μιας ρητορικής περί της ύπαρξης, της αναβίωσης ή του θανάτου του αρχαίου μύθου στο πεδίο της νεωτερικότητας. / -