Les années cinquante ont vu l'apparition d'un «théâtre d'avant-garde» en France, sous la plume d'auteurs tels que Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet et Arthur Adamov. Au Québec, le même phénomène s'est produit, mais l'étiquette officielle de «théâtre de l'absurde québécois» n'a pas encore été prêtée à un corpus défini de pièces de théâtre. Cette étude, dans un premier temps, effectue un repérage des caractéristiques intrinsèques aux oeuvres du théâtre de l'absurde français, plus précisément celles des quatre auteurs mentionnes ci-dessus, a l'aide d'ouvrages théoriques reconnus (notamment The Theatre of the Absurd de Martin Esslin, Histoire du «nouveau théâtre» de Geneviève Serreau, Le Théâtre du nouveau langage de Gilbert Tarrab et Le théâtre de dérision d'Emmanuel Jacquart). Les chapitres subséquents sont consacrés a 1'analyse des oeuvres dramatiques québécoises Les Insolites de Jacques Languirand et La répétition de Dominic Champagne, afin de vérifier l'occurence des mêmes traits, particuliers au théâtre de dérision, et de montrer l'existence réelle de ce type de théâtre au Québec. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

This essay examines how the meaning of an absurd play may be affected by how the reader understands the text. To address this problem I have turned to Wolfgang Isers theory of reception. Primarily I have taken on that the creation of meaning comes about when the reader fills in blanks in the text. I have also used Martin Esslins work on the theater of the absurd. I have mainly studied his research on Harold Pinter. Based on these two theories I have suggested a interpretation model that focuses on the interaction between reader and text. The interpretation model contains how the reader analyses blanks through observing the wandering view alternatively understanding the implied reader. The interpretation model also discusses how the reader can fill in blanks by using the relationship between character and environment, the final junction, turning points and uncertainties. I tested this interpretation model on Harold Pinters play A kind of Alaska. In my ideation of the play I realized it was about the loneliness of ageing and changing. I used these results to evaluate the usefulness of the interpretation model. / Denna uppsats undersöker hur läsarens uppfattning av en absurdistisk pjäs påverkar dess betydelse. För att angripa det här problemet har jag dels vänt mig till Wolfgang Isers receptions teori. Jag har främst tagit fasta på hur meningskapande sker när läsaren fyller i luckor i texten. Jag har även vänt mig till Martin Esslins forskning om den absurdistiska teatern. Där har jag främst studerat hans undersökning av Harold Pinters dramatik. Utifrån dess två teoretiska ingångar la jag fram ett förslag till en tolkningsmodell som utgår från läsarens interaktion med texten. Tolkningsmodellen innehåller bland annat hur man kan analysera luckor utifrån läsarens rörliga perspektiv alternativt utifrån en underförstådd läsare. Tolkningsmodellen tar också upp hur läsaren kan fylla i luckor genom att använda sig av karaktärens relation till rummet, knutpunkter, vändpunkter och osäkerheter. Jag har testat tolkningsmodellen på Harold Pinters pjäs A kind of Alaska. I min ideation av pjäsen kom jag fram till att den handlade om ensamheten i åldrande och förändring. Jag använde resultatet av analysen för att utvärdera tolkningsmodellens användbarhet.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-04-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:26:25Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 leite_al_me_arafcl.pdf: 864986 bytes, checksum: 0067c970ef9b685707a6e900dd9a6ce9 (MD5) / A obra de arte dramática, diferentemente de outras formas artístico-literárias, é a que de forma mais prática e imediata estabelece uma relação entre seu realizador e o público ao qual ela é destinada. Contudo, o drama moderno, produzido a partir do final do século XIX, passou por uma série de crises e adaptações quanto à forma e ao conteúdo, decorrentes de várias mudanças ocorridas nos mais diversos setores da sociedade. Edward Albee é um dos maiores dramaturgos norte-americanos da segunda metade do séc. XX. Seguindo uma tradição que produziria grandes talentos como Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams e Arthur Miller, o novo autor surge em 1958 com seu texto, The Zoo Story, associado ao Teatro do Absurdo. A peça de forma minimalista põe em cena dois bancos de praça e duas personagens: Peter que é a própria personificação do self made man, já que está enjaulado aos ideais e aos valores burgueses de vida, e Jerry o outsider ou o transeunte permanente que não se insere nos padrões, no código moral e de valores socialmente estabelecidos. Entretanto, ou por isso mesmo, possui uma capacidade reflexiva extremamente aguçada. O objetivo é tratar de um aspecto da peça - a questão da absurvidade e da liberdade, como formas de transcender a angústia existencial e a vida sem significado em um contexto destituído de símbolos metafísicos. Analisar-se-ão os elementos relacionados a estes tópicos bem como o modo que servem de instrumento para o esvaziamento da ideologia burguesa, que culmina na crítica ácida que Edward Albee desfere ao American way of life. / Dramatic art, differently from other literacy-artistic forms, is the one that most practically and immediately establishes a relationship between its producer and the audience it is created for. However, modern drama, produced since the end of nineteenth century, has gone through many crises and adaptations in its form and content, originated from many changes occured in the various instances of society. Edward Albee is one of the major American playwrights of the second half of the twentieth century. Following a tradition which produced gifted authors such as Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, the new author appears with his play The Zoo Story in 1958, associated to the Theater of the Absurd. The play, in a minimalist way, stages two park benches and two characters: Peter, the personification of the self made man, encaged in the bourgeois ideals and values of life; and Jerry, the outsider or the permanent transient who does not fill in the patterns, in the moral code or the established social values. However, or because of this, he has a sharpened reflexive ability. The aim of our search is to treat one aspect of the play - absurdity and freedom - a means of transceding existential anguish and life without meaning in a context deprived of metaphysical symbols. We intend to analyze elements related to these topics, as well as the way they function as instruments for the emptying bourgeois ideology which, ends up the sour criticism Albee aims at the American way of life.

Izabela Laiblová Urban Dissertation "Václav Havel and Sławomir Mrożek - Theater of the Absurd behind the Iron Curtain" Abstract: Dissertation is devoted to the analysis of dramatic works of Václav Havel and Sławomir Mrożek in the context of the Theater of the Absurd, trying to answer the question whether it is possible to include plays of these East European writers into this literary movement. Dissertation discusses the impact of political, social and cultural situation on the entry of the Theater of the Absurd behind the Iron Curtain reflecting the perception of the trend in Czechoslovakia and Poland. It describes the key thematic areas of both authors' dramatic plays, such as the relationship between humans and the system, the individual and the group as well as type of dramatic characters. It focuses also on the language of Havel's and Mrożek's plays with its several characteristics, such as phraseology taken from the language of communist propaganda as well as combining different styles - official, administrative and others. The dissertation discusses the composition Havel's and Mrożek's with their significant differences, outlined by comparing the relationship "circle - funnel", respectively "circle - spiral". The research is focused mainly on early plays of both authors. In the case of Havel's plays...

Ce projet de mémoire porte sur le mouvement de l’absurde qui s’établit au théâtre dans les années 1950 et 1960. Il a pour objectif de saisir comment la scène absurde, dans sa dimension du comique et de la dérision, se déploie au sein du champ théâtral québécois. Selon l’historiographie théâtrale, le théâtre québécois de la première moitié du XXe siècle correspond, souvent avec quelques années de retard, à la modernité européenne et française. Ce même modèle d’émulation devient cependant problématique après la Seconde Guerre mondiale et durant la deuxième moitié du siècle. Pour preuve : l’absurde éclot en France dans les années 1950 autour d’un corpus d’œuvres et d’auteurs assez bien défini et connu de tous, alors que le mouvement, au Québec, reste un continent enfoui qui passe difficilement le seuil de la perception courante. La crise du logocentrisme et de la conception humaniste traditionnelle qui marque la période d’après-guerre, ainsi que le désir croissant de fonder une dramaturgie nationale originale font en sorte que certains dramaturges québécois proposent une reconfiguration complète de l’art théâtral. Jacques Languirand, Robert Gurik et Yves Hébert Sauvageau en font partie, et c’est à travers trois de leurs créations théâtrales originales que nous souhaitons explorer cette problématique. Nous commencerons par inscrire le théâtre québécois d’après-guerre dans le large contexte de son époque. La deuxième partie de l’étude aborde les questions relatives au dépassement du cadre dramatique traditionnel qui fait en sorte que la langue, pour nos dramaturges, ne permet plus d’être un vecteur d’affirmation identitaire, et constitue désormais un objet dérisoire. Nous explorerons ensuite le principe de dérision après la Seconde Guerre mondiale au sein du théâtre de l’absurde français et comment il se manifeste dans l’élaboration du langage théâtral des trois pièces au corpus. Finalement, la dernière partie du mémoire propose de cerner le plaisir de la dérision propre au théâtre, en étudiant les pièces à l’aide des principales théories sur l’humour. Cette recherche s’opère par le biais d’une saisie théorique multiple, au croisement de l’approche intermédiale historique du théâtre québécois et des concepts et des procédés de la théorie du comique. / This master’s thesis focuses on the absurdist thespian movement that took hold in the 1950s and 1960s. Its objective aims to understand how the absurd scene, in its dimension of comedy and derision, unfolds within the Quebec theatrical field. According to theatrical historiography, the Quebec theater of the first half of the 20th century corresponds, often with a few years of delay, to European and French modernity. However, this exact model of emulation became problematic after the Second World War and during the second half of the century. For instance, the absurd flourished in France in the 1950s around a corpus of works and authors notably defined and known to all, whereas in Quebec the movement remained a buried continent that had difficulty crossing the threshold of common perception. The crisis of logocentrism and the traditional humanist conception that marked the post-war period, as well as the growing desire to found an original national dramaturgy, led certain Quebec playwrights to propose a complete reconfiguration of theatrical art. Jacques Languirand, Robert Gurik, and Yves Hébert Sauvageau are among them, and it is through three of their original theatrical creations that we wish to explore this issue. We will begin by placing post-war Quebec theater in the broad context of its time. The second part of the study addresses questions related to the overcoming of the traditional dramatic framework which, for our playwrights, means that language can no longer be a vehicle for affirming identity, and henceforth constitutes a derisory object. We will then explore the principle of derision after the Second World War within the French theater of the absurd and how it manifests itself in the elaboration of the theatrical language from three plays of the corpus. Conclusively, the last part of this thesis proposes to identify the pleasure of derision specific to the theater by studying the plays with the help of the main theories on humor. This research is carried out through a multiple theoretical approach, at the crossroads of the historical intermedial approach of Quebec theater and the concepts and procedures of comedy theory.

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.