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“The Theatrical Pendulum: Paths of Innovation in the Modernist Stage” by Andrés

“The Theatrical Pendulum: Paths of Innovation in the Modernist Stage” by Andrés Pérez-Simón A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto © Copyright by Andrés Pérez-Simón, 2010 978-0-494-97274-8 Your file Votre référence Library and Archives Canada Bibliothèque et Archives Canada Published Heritage Branch 395 Wellington Street Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Direction du Patrimoine de l'édition 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada NOTICE: ISBN: Our file Notre référence 978-0-494-97274-8 ISBN: The author has granted a non- exclusive license allowing Library and Archives Canada to reproduce, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, communicate to the public by telecommunication or on the Internet, loan, distrbute and sell theses worldwide, for commercial or non- commercial purposes, in microform, paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Privacy Act some supporting forms may have been removed from this thesis. While these forms may be included in the document page count, their removal does not represent any loss of content from the thesis. AVIS: L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou autres formats. L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur et des droits moraux qui protege cette thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans son autorisation. Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la protection de la vie privée, quelques formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de cette thèse. Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. ii “The Theatrical Pendulum: Paths of Innovation in the Modernist Stage” Andrés Pérez-Simón Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto 2010 Abstract This dissertation examines the renovation of the modernist stage, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the late 1930s, via a retrieval of three artistic forms that had marginal importance in the commercial theatre of the nineteenth century. These three paths are the commedia dell’arte, puppetry and marionettes, and, finally, what I denominate mysterium, following Elinor Fuch’s terminology in The Death of Character. This dissertation covers the temporal span of the first three decades of the twentieth century and, at the same time, analyzes modernist theatre in connection with the history of Western drama since the consolidation of the bourgeois institution of theatre around the late eighteenth century. The Theatrical Pendulum: Paths of Innovation in the Modernist Staget studies the renovation of the bourgeois institution of theatre by means of the rediscovery of artistic forms previously relegated to a peripheral status in the capitalist system of artistic production and distribution. In their dramatic works, Nikolai Evreinov, Josef and Karel Čapek, Massimo Bontempelli, and Federico García Lorca present fictional actors, playwrights and directors who resist the fact that their work be evaluated as just another commodity. These dramatists collaborate with the commercial stage of their time, iii instead of adopting the radical stance that characterized avant-garde movements such as Italian futurism and Dadaism. Yet they also question the illusionist fourth wall separating stage and audience in order to denounce the subjection of the modernist artist to the expectations of bourgeois spectators. Jan Mukařovský’s concept of practical function in art is central to understanding the didactic nature of the dramatic texts studied in this dissertation. By claiming the importance of Mukařovský’s phenomenological structuralism, I propose a new reading of the theoretical legacy of the Prague School in conjunction with recent contributions in the field of theatre studies by Elinor Fuchs, Martin Puchner and other scholars whose work will be discussed here. iv Acknowledgments I would like to thank my doctoral committee. My supervisor, Veronika Ambros, generously shared her time with me during the last three years and proved to be not only a thorough scholar but a person entirely devoted to her doctoral students. And, in alphabetical order, I would like to thank Alan Ackerman, who provided me with feedback of extraordinary value for every chapter of this dissertation and always directed me to the current debates in theatre scholarship; Stephen Rupp, critical reader and mentor in his role of professor and Chair of Spanish and Portuguese, of great assistance in my search for my first academic position; and Luca Somigli, the Italian comparatist who I knew would be part of my doctoral committee as soon as I took my first class with him in September 2005. My work has benefited greatly from several graduate courses I attended at University of Toronto from 2005 to 2007. In chronological order, I mention the following professors: Linda Hutcheon, whose course on literary history I was lucky to attend just days after landing in Toronto; Mario J. Valdés, who attracted my attention to phenomenological approaches to film and theatre; Luca Somigli, professor of Italian modernism and avant-garde, on two occasions; and Michael J. Sidnell, whose full-year course at the Drama Centre granted me the tools necessary to undertake a doctoral thesis on European modernist theatre. I also benefited from three graduate courses with my supervisor Veronika Ambros, who first introduced me to the dramatic works of Josef and Karel Čapek. I would also like to thankRoland LeHuenen and Neil ten Kortenaar, respectively the past and the current directors of the Centre for Comparative Literature,for their support; the work of the graduate coordinators Barbara Havercroft and Jill Ross; and the generous assistance of v Aphrodite Gardner and Bao Nguyen. My thanks go also to my friend and colleague Adil D’Sousa, who did the copyediting job and, most important, was always ready to sacrifice his time in order to help me meet the next deadline. And Ruth Molina made everything happen. vi Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Theoretical perspectives. 1.1. Limits and possibilities of theatre semiotics. 1.2. From the ‘meta’ prefix to a functional approach to art. 17 33 Chapter 2: The modernist commedia dell’arte. 2.1. The rebirth of commedia dell’arte in the modernist years. 2.2. Evreinov’s The Merry Death. Theory and praxis of theatricality. 2.3. Josef and Karel Čapek’s The Fateful Game of Love. Fictional audiences and the “impossibility” of theatre. 49 61 71 Chapter 3: The modernist puppet theatre. 3.1. Puppets, from symbolism to the modernist revival of the fairground booth. 3.2. Bontempelli’s Hedge to Northwest and the Italian tradition of the teatro grottesco. 3.3. Lorca’s theatre of the 1920s. How to do critical theatre with puppets. 90 106 119 Chapter 4: The modernist mysterium. 4.1. The modernist mysterium, between allegory and didacticism. 4.2. Lorca’s The Public. Between modernism and the tradition of the auto sacramental. 4.3. Karel Čapek’s The Mother. Allegories of war and nationhood. 136 148 172 Conclusion 189 Works Cited 198 vii SERVANT. Sir. DIRECTOR. What? SERVANT. There is the public. DIRECTOR. Show them in. (Federico García Lorca) “If theater could be an initiatory participatory game, it could be at once entertaining and fateful” (Richard Schechner) viii Introduction 1 This dissertation investigates the activation of audiences in modernist theatre from the early years of the twentieth century to the late 1930s. During this span of approximately three decades, Nikolai Evreinov, Josef and Karel Čapek, Massimo Bontempelli, and Federico García Lorca contributed to the renewal of the European stage by reinterpreting certain traditions that had received scarce attention in the preceding decades of realist and naturalist theatre. Their collaboration with the commercial stage distinguishes them from the overt confrontation, made in the name of a radical “modern” rupture, which characterized avant-garde movements such as Italian futurism and Dadaism. This project focuses on three paths that had marginal relevance in the bourgeois stage of the nineteenth century, be it melodrama or realist theatre, and that did not receive the attention of high-brow dramatists until the emergence of symbolist theatre in the closing years of the century. The first source is puppetry and marionettes, relegated in the nineteenth century to the realms of folk theatre and children’s entertainment; the second, commedia dell’arte, whose improvisatory nature had no place in a time when theatre was synonymous with scripted drama; and, finally, a third path developed into a form of didactic theatre that relied on the expository nature of the mystery play and, in broader terms, allegorical religious drama. I refer to this third form as the modernist mysterium following Elinor Fuchs’ terminology in The Death of Character (36-51). By adapting these peripheral traditions to a historical context different from their original, the playwrights studied here performed a process of refunctioning. I derive this concept of refunctioning from the research of Jan Mukařovský mainly in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Mukařovský investigated how when a work is perceived against a new uploads/Litterature/ the-theatrical-pendulum.pdf