Les monstruosités des personnages de mort·es dans le théâtre de Patrick Kermann
The monstrosities of dead characters in Patrick Kermann’s plays

Summary/Abstract: In this article we analyse the writing of Patrick Kermann, a contemporary French playwright of the late twentieth century, in order to explore the twists and turns of multiple monstrosities, all revolving around the concept of death and the state of being dead. Indeed, Patrick Kermann’s plays are entirely composed of dead characters who are not there to wander around, among the living. On the contrary, in different spaces, they show themselves and their apocalyptic aspects are immediately visible as they expose themselves and put their damaged, emaciated, or unimaginable bodies on stage. Or, when their bodies are not the object of their speech and their teratologies are invisible, they masticate the moral atrocities of their living past, without questioning these abominations because that is not their role or their capacity. So, we, the reader-spectators, must witness ‘an art of death, an art of making the dead speak’ (Kermann 2000) that exalts our knowledges and imaginations about death, by bringing us face to face with monsters that ‘have no face, no name, no sex, no genealogy, no assignable destiny’. (Kermann 2000)

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