The Simulacrum of Illusion: Jean Genet’s Les Nègres

  • Fabio La Mantia università kore enna

Abstract

Les Nègres (The Blacks, 1958) is perhaps the most discussed work of Jean Genet’s dramatic corpus. The exegetical perplexities that gravitate around this work focus on several aspects, including the reliability of its ritualistic status. The purpose of this study is, in fact, to establish if Les Nègres is a ritual or if, on the contrary, it represent its mystification. The analysis conducted is on two levels: at the beginning, it identifies the levels of falsification present in the drama. Secondly, it gives the play a ritual apparatus that does not, however, exhaust its complexity. Les Nègres, as this paper will try to demonstrate, is a performance in the Schechnerian sense, which is the sum and the interaction of apparently irreconcilable qualities: efficacy  and entertainment.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Fabio La Mantia, università kore enna
ricercatore confermato di letterature comparate e critica letteraria

References

Appetito, Paola, Realtà e apparenza nel teatro di Jean Genet, Roma, Aracne, 2010.

Barber, Stephen, Jean Genet, London, Reaktion Books, 2004.

Bennett, Michael, Reassessing the Theatre of the Absurd: Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, and Pinter, New York, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2011.

Blin, Roger, “Un rituale in bianco e nero”, L’immortalità leggendaria. Il teatro di Jean Genet, Eds. Colomba, Sergio – Dichy, Albert, Milano, Ubulibri, 1990: 202-219.

Bradby, David, “Genet, the Theatre and the Algerian War”, Theatre Research International, 19.3 (1994): 226-37.

Bradby, David – Finburgh, Claire, Jean Genet, New York, Routledge, 2012.

Brunel, Pierre, “Le théâtre dans Les Nègres de Jean Genet”, Le théâtre dans le théâtre, le cinéma au cinéma, Ed. Frank Wilhelm, Manage, Lansman, 1998: 131-42.

Cambiaghi, Mariagabriella, La commedia in commedia: rappresentazioni teatrali nella finzione scenica, Milano, Mondadori, 2009.

Camus, Albert, Le Mythe de Sisyphe, Gallimard, Paris, 1942, trad. it. di A. Borelli, Il mito di Sisifo, Milano, Bompiani, 2008.

Cetta, Lewis, Profane Play, Ritual, and Jean Genet. A Study of His Drama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama University Press, 1972.

Colomba, Sergio – Dichy, Albert (eds.), L’immortalità leggendaria. Il teatro di Jean Genet, Milano, Ubulibri, 1990.

Di Giacomo, Giuseppe, “Il paradosso dell’apparenza nel teatro di Jean Genet”, Comprendere, 14/2, (2012): 41-57.

Dort, Bernard, “Genet o la lotta con il teatro”, L’immortalità leggendaria. Il teatro di Jean Genet, Eds. Colomba, Sergio – Dichy, Albert, Milano, Ubulibri, 1990: 13-24.

Esslin, Martin, The Theatre of the Absurd, New York, Anchor Books, 1961, trad. it. di R. De Baggis e M. Trasatti, Il teatro dell’assurdo, Roma, Edizioni Abete, 1975.

Fanon, Franz, Peau noire, masques blancs, Èditions du Seuil, Paris, 1952, trad. it. di S. Chiletti, Pelle nera, maschere bianche, Pisa, ETS, 2015.

Fanon, Franz, Le damnés de la terre, Maspero, Paris, trad. it. di C. Cignetti, I dannati della terra, Torino, Einaudi, 2007.

Finburgh, Clare – Lavery Carl – Shevtsova, Maria, Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, New York, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2006.

Gaitet, Pascale, Queens and Revolutionaries. New Readings of Jean Genet, Newark, University of Delaware Press, 2003.

Gaines, Malik, Black Performance on the Outskirts of the Left: A History of the Impossible, New York, New York University Press, 2017.

Genet, Jean, Journal du voleur, Paris, Gallimard, 1949, trad. it. di G. Caproni, Diario del ladro, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2009.

Id., Les Nègres. Clownerie, Paris, Gallimard, 1981, trad. it. di R. Wilcock, I Negri, Torino, Einaudi, 1982.

Id., Il Funambolo, trad. it. di G. Pinotti, Milano, Adelphi, 1997.

Id., Conversazione con Hubert Fichte, trad. it. di G. Lupieri – M. Leva – O. Ponte Di Pino, Milano, Ubulibri, 1987.

Id., Palestinesi, trad. it. di M. Dotti, Milano, Stampa Alternativa, 2002.

Jovicevic, Aleksandra (ed.), Il nuovo terzo mondo dei performance studies, Roma, Bulzoni, 2017.

Khélil, Hédi, Figures de l'altérité dans le théâtre de Jean Genet: lecture des Nègres et des Paravents, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2001.

Kott, Jan, The Eating of the Gods, Random House, New York, 1973, trad. it. di E. Capriolo, Divorare gli dei. Un’interpretazione della tragedia greca, Mondadori, Milano, 2005. 

Kruger, Loren, “Ritual into Myth: Ceremony and Communication in The Blacks”, Critical Arts, 1.3 (1980): 59-69.

Little, Roger, Nègres blancs: représentations de l'autre autre, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1995.

Nagpal, Payal, Shifting Paradigms in Culture. A Study of Three Plays by Jean Genet, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.

Oxenhandler, Neal, “Can Genet Be Saved? Remarks on The Blacks”, Contemporary Literature, 16.4 (1975): 417-432. 

Plunka, Gene, The Rites of Passage of Jean Genet: The Art and Aesthetics of Risk Taking, Rutherford – Madison – Teaneck, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992.

Savona, Jeannette, Jean Genet, London, MacMillan, 2016.

Sartre, Jean-Paul, Saint Genet comédien et martyr, Gallimard, Paris, 1952, trad. it. di C. Pavolini, Santo Genet, commediante e martire, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 1972.

Roberts, David, “The Play within the Play and the Closure of Representation”, The Play within the Play. The Performance of Meta-theatre and Self-reflection, Eds. Fischer, Gerhard – Greiner, Bernhard, Amsterdam-New York, Rodopi, 2007: 37-46.

Schechner, Richard, Performance theory, New York, Routledge, 2010a.

Id., “Playing with Genet’s Balcony: Looking Back on 1979/1980 Production”, Between Theater and Anthropology, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010b: 261-93.

Id., Performance studies. An introduction, New York, Routledge, 2002, trad. it. di D. Tomasello, Introduzione ai Performance Studies, Imola, CuePress, 2018.

Thompson, Debby, “What Exactly is Black?: Interrogating the Reality of Race in Jean Genet’s The Blacks”, Studies in 20th Century Literature, 6.2 (2002): 395-425.

Tomasello, Dario, “Rito teatro performance. Modesta proposta per un ritorno alle origini”, Mantichora, 6 (2016): 93-110.

Vazzoler, Franco, Il chierico e la scena: cinque capitoli su Sanguineti e il teatro, Genova, Il Nuovo Melangolo, 2009.

Webb, Richard, Jean Genet and His Critics: An Annotated Bibliography, 1943-1980, Metuchen, Scarecrow, 1982.

Published
2019-11-30
How to Cite
La Mantia, F. (2019). The Simulacrum of Illusion: Jean Genet’s <i>Les Nègres</i&gt;. Between, 9(18). https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/3743