À travers un corpus composé des onze derniers drames d’Henrik Ibsen, cette étude utilise le concept d’aporie pour procéder à une analyse de la fabrique de l’écriture ibsénienne. D’un point de vue philosophique, psychanalytique, poétique, l’aporie met en péril le discours, en révèle les défaillances et problématise la production du sens. Ainsi, cette notion, appréhendée comme un outil heuristique, offre la possibilité de remonter le cours des drames qui s’achèvent systématiquement par des fins ouvertes. Elle permet alors d’identifier : un processus ironique de déconstruction des pratiques discursives, une dimension existentielle, une théâtralité spécifique, diverses figures dramaturgiques attestant de la nature critique de l’œuvre. En vertu d’un saut qualitatif dans la dramaturgie ibsénienne à partir du Constructeur Solness, l’analyse chronologique des pièces se divise en deux parties. La question est de savoir en quel sens et selon quels moyens le théâtre d’Henrik Ibsen interroge l’impact de la fiction dans le monde de vie du lecteur-spectateur. / This study uses the concept of aporia to develop an analysis of Henrik Ibsen's writing, with specific focus on his last eleven plays. From a philosophical, psychoanalytical or poetic point of view, the aporia is that which jeopardizes discourse, exposing its failings and problematizing the production of meaning. The notion of aporia, taken as a heuristic tool, therefore provides a means to examine the systematically open-ended nature of the plays. The study identifies: an ironic process which serves to deconstruct discursive practices, an existential dimension to the plays, a specific form of theatricality and various dramatic figures bearing out the critical nature of Ibsen's work. In accordance with a qualitative shift in Ibsen's work [from The Master Builder on], the chronological analysis of the dramas is divided in two parts. The overall aim of the research is to assess to what extent and in what ways Henrik Ibsen’s theatre investigates fiction's impact on the world of the reader - audience.

The growing accessibility of quantum mechanics and chaos theory over the past eighty years has opened a new mode of world-creating for dramatists. An increasingly large collection of plays organize their fictional worlds around such scientific concepts as quantum uncertainty and chaotic determinism. This trend is especially noticeable within dramatic texts that emphasize a fictional, not material or metafictional, engagement. These plays construct fictional worlds that reflect the increasingly strange actual world. The dominant theoretical approaches to fictional worlds unfairly treat these plays as primarily metafictional texts, when these texts construct fictional experiences to speculate about everyday ramifications of living in a post-quantum mechanics world. This thesis argues that these texts are best understood as examples of speculative fiction drama, and they speculate about the changes to our understanding of reality implied by contemporary scientific discoveries. Looking at three plays as exemplary case studies—John Mighton’s Possible Worlds (1990), Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (1993), and Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul (2001)—this thesis demonstrates that speculative fiction theories can be adapted into fictional worlds analysis, allowing us to analyze these plays as fiction-making texts that offer nonclassical aesthetic experiences. In doing so, this thesis contributes to speculative fiction studies, fictional worlds studies, and the dynamic interdisciplinary dialogue between aesthetic and scientific discourses.

The Meisner Technique emerged as a part of the realist, modern theatre of the early-Twentieth Century and extended its influence through the rest of that century, including the 1960s and 1970s when there was an explosion of various forms of postmodern performance. This work will demonstrate that while Meisner’s Technique is a part of the paradigm of modern, realist theatre, it simultaneously challenges this ideology with disruptive processes of the sort that postmodern performance instigates. It is the thesis of this work that the Meisner Technique operates according to a set of phenomenologically-aligned imperatives that create strong resonances with certain forms of postmodern performance. This establishes the dynamic wherein the Meisner Technique is able to enter into discourse with instances of the postmodern paradigm of performance. In the first three chapters I will conduct in-depth analyses of Meisner actors’ relationships with their environment, their fellow performers, and their actions from a range of phenomenological perspectives. In the fourth chapter I will apply the conclusions of these analyses to the operation of the Meisner Technique within the paradigm of modern, realist theatre. In the fifth chapter I will set a backdrop to the postmodern field and suggest the issues from this tradition with which the Meisner Technique might resonate. Chapters Six, Seven, and Eight each take one example of an artist from the postmodern field, Richard Foreman, Michael Kirby, and Robert Wilson respectively, establishes their own particular context, and suggests those processes relating to acting/performing technique that might provoke the most productive exchanges. This juxtaposition suggests the places between the practices where discourse might take root and suggests the beginnings of such dialogues.