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Aesthetic activism : the poetics of stage direction in the theaters of Apollinaire, Artaud, and Genet ; Poetics of stage direction in the theaters of Apollinaire, Artaud, and Genet
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Abstract:
This dissertation explores textual stage directions (didascalie) in selected works of twentieth-century French drama, specifically, Guillaume Apollinaire's Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1917), Antonin Artaud's Les Cenci (1935), and Jean Genet's Le Balcon (1956). With close readings framed by current scholarship, I determine how theatrical properties of sound, appearance and gesture work to create dynamics between the modes of stage direction and performed dialogue. I argue that the authors' stage directions establish a poetics that undermine discourses of power voiced by characters who are figures of authority: hero, husband, father, judge, etc. The poetics of stage direction in these dramas are purposeful to challenge traditional power structures, provoke sociopolitical commentary, and transform a community. I define their poetic systems within the dramas as 'aesthetic activism,' that is the disruption of traditional forms of representation as a means of sociopolitical expression. I evaluate the textual dynamics between didascalic and dialogic modes, that results in the disruption of representation, alongside Jacques Rancière's concepts of 'mute speech' and 'aesthetic regime.' In doing so, I determine how the innovation of a 'mute but not silent' stage direction poetics work with discourses of power related to contemporary social contexts. Through manipulating the communicative system of stage direction--that seeks articulation between playwright and reader concerning material conditions and didactic commands--each author creates a space of interaction through work. This is purposeful to challenge the reader and make them question how power functions within the drama, as well as outside the text, off the stage, and in the real world. Aesthetic activism, as a theoretical approach to artistic forms, offers a multidisciplinary payoff for studies in aesthetics, literature, history, and activism. Moreover, mute speech poetics, like those of stage direction, offer contemporary directors, poets, scholars, and performers alternative approaches to social commentary within and around textual and discursive modes. ; French and Italian
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Keyword:
Activism; Avant-garde; French drama; Modern drama; Poetics
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2152/68107
https://doi.org/10.15781/T2ZP3WJ8K
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