L’AMBIVALENCE D’UN CHEF-D’ŒUVRE : UNE LETTRE PERDUE DE I.L. CARAGIALE
THE AMBIVALENCE OF A MASTERPIECE: A LOST LETTER BY I.L. CARAGIALE
Author(s): Doina ModolaSubject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Romanian Literature, Philology
Published by: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai
Keywords: I.L. Caragiale; Romanian theatre; farce; vaudeville; humour; comedy; ambivalence;
Summary/Abstract: The Ambivalence of a Masterpiece: A Lost Letter by I.L. Caragiale. A Lost Letter by I.L. Caragiale, a landmark in the history of Romanian theatre, has enjoyed throughout time numerous critical interpretations, without losing its dramatic potential. We intend to study the comic mechanism through a variety of dramatic strategies: the diversity of the scenes, the circular actions, the baffling succession of situations, starting with the loss of the compromising love letter. This play features the actors of a political electoral farce overflowing with a vaudeville-like comic, that in conjunction with parody, is targeting the ideological clichés and verbal stereotypes. A logically inconceivable humour that borders the absurd. The purpose of this kind of humour, unleashed during comical situations, is not hiding the immorality, the demagogy of a socio-political reality put under the critical scope of the author. The joyful, bitter or cruel laughter are being in a continuous competition here. The humour is thus the element that subverts the values of political commitment.
Journal: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai - Dramatica
- Issue Year: 65/2020
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 97-122
- Page Count: 26
- Language: French