UNFORGETTABLE CRUELTIES: INFLUENCE OF ANTONIN

UNFORGETTABLE CRUELTIES: INFLUENCE OF ANTONIN ARTAUD’S
THEATER OF CRUELTY ON ABLA FARHOUD’S JEUX DE PATIENCE AND
WAJDI MOUAWAD’S INCENDIES
Julee R. LaPorte
A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department
of Romance Languages (French)
Chapel Hill
2009
Approved by:
Dr. Dominique Fisher
Dr. Martine Antle
Dr. Philippe Barr

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© 2009
Julee R. LaPorte
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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ABSTRACT
JULEE LAPORTE: Unforgettable Cruelties: Influence of Antonin Artaud’s Theater of
Cruelty on Abla Farhoud’s Jeux de Patience and Wajdi Mouawad’s Incendies
(Under the direction of Dominique Fisher)
The goal of the present study is to analyze the influence of Antonin Artaud’s
theater of cruelty on the present-day dramas of Lebanese-Canadian playwrights Abla
Farhoud and Wajdi Mouawad. Their respective use of what Artaud calls the “concrete
language of the stage” as well as their tendency to question the role of articulated
language in the expression of trauma allows for new understandings of the theater’s role
within communities experiencing turmoil, displacement, and loss. By employing
Artaudian cruelty on both a formal as well as a thematic level, the plays of Farhoud and
Mouawad bear witness to the atrocities of war, while simultaneously offering new hope
to victims and survivors of trauma by positioning the stage as a theater of witness.

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To Turtles, Hawks & Scorpions of all sizes

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………………….vi
Chapter
I. Introduction……………………………………….…...…………………..1
II. In Search of a Concrete Language of the
Stage……………………………………………………..………………...9
III. Questioning Articulated Language: Against
Repetition………………………………………………………………...22
IV. Cruelty and the Theater’s Doubles: Towards a
New Theater of the Community…………………...…………………….31
Works Cited……………………………………………………………………...41