Modern European tragedy: exploring crucial plays

264 Pages·2015·3.179 MB·English

by  Cascetta, Annamaria

Modern European Tragedy
Anthem Studies in Theatre and Performance
Anthem Studies in Theatre and Performance takes a broad, global

approach to cultural analysis to examine and critique a wide range of performative

acts from the most traditional forms of theatre studies (music, theatre and dance) to

more popular, less structured forms of cultural performance. The twenty-first century

in particular has seen theatre and performance studies become a major perspective for

examining, understanding and critiquing contemporary culture and its historical roots.

Performance is a vital manifestation of culture that is enacted, a form to

be experienced, recorded, analysed and theorized. It is among the most

useful and dynamic foci for the global study of culture.

Series Editor
S. E. Gontarski – Florida State University, USA
Editorial Board
Alan Ackerman – University of Toronto, Canada

Robson Corrêa de Camargo – Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil

Stephen A. Di Benedetto – University of Miami, USA

Herbert Blau – University of Washington, USA

Enoch Brater – University of Michigan, USA

Annamaria Cascetta – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

Christopher Innes – York University, Canada

Anna McMullan – University of Reading, UK

Martin Puchner – Harvard University, USA

Kris Salata – Florida State University, USA

W. B. Worthen – Barnard College, Columbia University, USA
Modern European Tragedy

Exploring Crucial Plays
AnnAMARIA CASCETTA
Anthem Press

An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company

www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2015

by AnTHEM PRESS

75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK

or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK

and

244 Madison Ave #116, new York, nY 10016, USA

First published in hardback by Anthem Press in 2014

Copyright © 2015 Annamaria Cascetta

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,

no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means

(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),

without the prior written permission of both the copyright

owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Cascetta, Annamaria, author.

Modern European tragedy : exploring crucial plays / Annamaria Cascetta. pages cm. –

(Anthem Studies in Theatre and Performance)

Includes index.

ISBn 978-1-78308-153-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. European drama (Tragedy)–History and criticism. 2. European drama–20th century–History

and criticism. 3. Tragedy–History and criticism. I. Title.

Pn1892.C36 2014

809.2’512–dc23

2014007426

9781783084241

ISBn-13: 978 1 78308 424 1 (Pbk)

ISBn-10: 1 78308 424 3 (Pbk)

Cover image: Franco Citti (Oedipus blind), frame from the film Oedipus Rex (Edipo re) by

Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy, 1967 (© Reporters Associati, Rome).

This title is also available as an ebook.
For Gigi

COnTEnTS

Acknowledgements ix
Introduction The Tragic, Tragedy and the Idea of the Limit 1
Chapter 1 Hubris and Guilt: Gengangere (Ghosts) by Henrik Ibsen 15
Chapter 2 Eve Becomes Mary: L’annonce faite à Marie
(The Tidings Brought to Mary) by Paul Claudel 31
Chapter 3 The School of Hatred: Mourning Becomes
Electra by Eugene O’neill 47
Chapter 4 The Destiny of Man Is Man: Mutter Courage
und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and Her Children)
by Bertolt Brecht 59
Chapter 5 The Tragic and the Absurd: Caligula by Albert Camus 75
Chapter 6 Dianoetic Laughter in Tragedy: Accepting
Finitude: Endgame by Samuel Beckett 91
Chapter 7 The Arrogance of Reason and the ‘Disappearance
of the Fireflies’: Pilade (Pylades) by Pier Paolo Pasolini 101
Chapter 8 The Apocalypse of a Civilization: From Akropolis
to Apocalypsis cum figuris by Jerzy Grotowski 117
A Provisional Between the Experience and the Representation
Epilogue of the Tragic: Towards a Performative Theatre 147
Appendix Chronology of Productions 163
Notes 199
Index 233

ACKnOWLEDGEMEnTS
I am most grateful to Stanley E. Gontarski for his support and encouragement during
our many years of collaboration, and give a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Marsha Gontarski
for making our friendship so special.
I also wish to thank the publisher Laterza for permission to translate Chapters 1–6
and the epilogue of this book, published in Italian in the book La tragedia del Novecento
(2010).
It is with much gratitude that I thank Maria Rita Gaito for her accurate contribution
in compiling the appendix and the illustrations, as well as Giuseppe Gario and Brian
Groves for their technical revision of the text.
I wish to record my thanks to Richard Sadleir, who translated this book from Italian
with competence, dedication, unabated patience and sincere interest. The translation
was made possible thanks to the financial contribution of the Catholic University of
Milan.
And, finally, my fondest appreciation to Giusi Lupi.