Catharsis in French Drama with the Rewritten Greek Myth in the First Half of the 20th Century

[V. Cvetković]

490 listova

Biografija autora: str. 490. Bibliografija: str. 458-488.

Filologija. Francuska književnost.

This doctoral dissertation seeks to examine whether and to what extent catharsis – as the main effect and essence of Hellenic tragedies according to Aristotle’s definition of tragedy in Poetics – is present in the French dramas of the first half of the 20th century with the rewritten Greek myth. Especially with regard to the characteristics of the plot, these French plays can be seen as "transformations" of Greek tragedies, as defined by Gérard Genette in Palimpsestes (1982). Our intention is to investigate whether this similarity also exists at the level of ideas and whether the tragedies and their transformations have the same cathartic effect. The main corpus of the research consists of six representative plays written by the five most important French authors of the selected period. Based on the myths they deal with, they are divided into three thematic units that tell the stories of four mythological characters: 1) Oedipus – André Gide, Oedipus (OEdipe, 1930); Jean Cocteau, The Infernal Machine (La Machine infernale, 1934); 2) Antigone - Jean Cocteau, Antigone (1922); Jean Anouilh, Antigone (1942); 3) Electra and Orestes - Jean Giraudoux, Electra (Électre, 1937); Jean-Paul Sartre, The Flies (Les Mouches, 1943). All these plays were based on the works of ancient Greek tragedians, therefore, within the framework of comparative analysis, we will consider the following tragedies: Sophocles, Oedipus the King and Antigone; Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers; Euripides, Electra. Since the new plays shift the mythical storylines from the 5th century BC to the socio-political context of France during the two world wars, it is necessary to understand how the mythological inspiration of the authors emerged from the crisis and in what way it influenced the construction of new meanings of the myths. Therefore, the research will follow the lead of myth-criticism and myth-analysis to define the literary myth and then understand its evolution from the Greek tragedies to the French dramas, with a brief overview of the tragedies of the French 17th century. At the same time, we must examine how much the spiritual and intellectual views of man, i. e. the very experience of the world that the Hellenic tragedies convey, have changed after more than two thousand years. In this way, we will see how the core idea of tragedy is perceived in modern times; we should understand to what extent the Greek "tragic vision" or "tragic philosophy" is present in the French plays and whether it is maintained in the ancient concept, as a consequence of fate, or rather transformed due to the changes in modern religious beliefs. In this way, we will determine both at the level of form/structure and at the level of content/ideas, whether the selected French plays from the first half of the 20th century can really be considered transformed tragedies. The final judgement will be made by the presence or absence of catharsis, which should be present as the essence of tragedy in its transformations. It therefore remains to investigate whether the cathartic effect is transformed and in what way, by analysing its presence in the selected plays. This should be done on the basis of the six interpretations that we had previously identified as key to explaining ancient catharsis: structural, aesthetic, affective and psychological, cognitive, ethical and didactic.

Katarza, tragedija, francuska drama prve polovine 20. veka, mit, književni mit, reaktualizacije mitova, Žid, Kokto, Žirodu, Anuj, Sartr.

Catharsis, tragedy, French drama of the first half of the 20th century, myth, literary myth, re-actualization of myths, Jew, Cocteau, Giraud, Anouille, Sartre.

821.133.1.09(043.3)

H 004; H 470

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