The Simulacrum of Illusion: Jean Genet’s Les Nègres
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.
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