thesis

Mauriac au theatre : histoire d'un insucces

Defense date:

Jan. 1, 1994

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Institution:

Paris 4

Disciplines:

Literature

Authors:

Directors:

Abstract EN:

The aim of this thesis is to reconsider francois mauriac's theatre, which during several years, has been neglected by literary criticism, by extracting the main forces and weaknesses of his work. We have attempted to find out his tastes as far as theatre is concerned through the study of his career as a dramatic critic, and we have noticed a predilection for the psychological, racinian and metaphysical theatre. The affinities with tchekhov attest these facts and give a preferance for the daily tragic although mauriac didn't gain the diversity of tchekhov's style. It was necessary to treat the main themes of mauriac's work and study the dramatis personae to schow their profound richness and their complexity that comes from the projection of the psychological in the metaphysical. Besides, the spatiotemporal study and of style shows the conformity of the work with the definition of the theatre, through this work has some weaknesses : closed world, long dialogues, selfanalyses, written language, sometimes poetic, but not always efficient. The last part sums up the main inadequacies of the work that were consolidated by external reasons which were not aimes at by mauriac himself : the rise of the avant-garde theatre and the weakening of psychological and metaphysical theatre brought prejudice to this theatre. Mauriac's work should not nevertheless be neglected and needs to be actualized on sta

Abstract FR:

Le but de cette these est de reconsiderer le theatre de francois mauriac qui, durant de longues annees, fut neglige par la critique litteraire, en degageant les principales forces et faiblesses de l'oeuvre. Nous avons cherche d'abord a connaitre ses gouts en matiere de theatre a travers l'etude de sa carriere de critique dramatique et avons note une predilection pour le theatre psychologique, racinien, metaphysique. Les affinites avec tchekhov precisent ces donnees et montrent une preference pour le tragique quotidien bien que mauriac n'ait pas atteint la diversite de l'ecriture tchekhovienne. Il etait egalement indispensable de traiter des grands themes de l'oeuvre et d'etudier les personnages pour montrer leur profonde richesse et leur complexite qui nait de la projection du psychologique dans le metaphysique. De plus, l'etude spatio-temporelle et de style montre la conformite de cette oeuvre avec la definition du theatre, bien qu'elle ne manque pas de certaines faiblesses : monde clos, longs dialogues et auto-analyses, langage ecrit, parfois poetique mais pas toujours efficace. La derniere partie fait le point dsur les principale carences de l'oeuvre qui se sont consolidees par les raisons independantes a la volonte de mauriac : la montee du theatre d'avant-garde et l'affaiblissement du theatre psychologique et metaphysique ont sensiblement nui a son theatre. Cette oeuvre merite pourtant d'etre reactualisee sur scene.