Cycnos | Numéros | Volume 15.2 - Irlande - Exils

Résumé :

Taking exile as the condition of becoming estranged from oneself or indeed as Ricœur puts it, “seeing oneself as other,”; this article seeks to understand why the monologue has become a form so beloved of Irish playwrights in recent years. Plays by J. Johnston, C. McPherson, D. O’Kelly, M. Jones, D. Bolger and B. Friel suggest different theatrical and ontological approaches to identity though all have in common the exclusion of dialogue. Those first-person retrospective narratives, confirm the influence of the psycho-analytical model and/or the stream of conciousness technique (including the use of the audience as interlocutor or even mediator) in which the speaking subject is also the object of discourse, though it is because the two never fully coincide that a fruitful distance is introduced. Can one still regard such works as belonging to the theatre? Ultimately it is the audience’s reaction which can demonstrate or question the theatrical nature of the plays.

Date de publication : 2008-07-09