Groza doświadczania. Sytuacja graniczna jako obrzęd przejścia w inicjacji dojrzałościowej na przykładzie sztuki dla młodzieży Pacamambo Wajdiego Mouawada
The Horror of Experiencing: A Limit Situation as a Rite of Passage in Adolescent Initiation on the Example of Wajdi Mouawad’s Young Adult Play Pacamambo

Summary/Abstract: The article is a study of Pacamambo (2000), a play by Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad, which combines the features of an initiation drama with horror elements and shows the nightmare of growing up through unexpected encounters with death. The author shows an analogy between the structure of the rite of passage, proposed by Arnold van Gennep and deepened by Victor Turner, and the aspects related to experiencing oneself in a limit situation in terms of Karl Jaspers and to the poetics of horror. On this basis, she proposes to isolate the tragic model of adolescence (next to the classic – idyllic and romantic – suffering) in which the role of traditional rites is replaced by a limit experience. She indicates that this is a model that we can often come across in contemporary young adult dramas and even in plays for children. She also distinguishes the concept of initiation drama, which still remains outside the area of interest of literary scholars.

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