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Modernist Meanings in the European Renovation of Commedia dell'Arte Drama

Saha, Anita Jean
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397487798

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Spanish and Portuguese.
This dissertation explores the rediscovery of commedia dell’s arte theatre in Europe during the Modernist era (approximately 1890-1930) by dramatists and theatre directors, which led to its usage as a tool for individual experimentation and general escape from the anxieties associated with the changing political environment. The appropriation of commedia dell’arte theatre was, for many theatre practitioners, the perfect structure with which to counteract the dominant Realist aesthetic that was prevalent throughout Europe at the time. Although these Modernist commedia-based plays and productions were generally created as art-for-art’s sake, this is not the case everywhere, as evidenced by some of the themes, both overt and masked, in the works of some Spanish dramatists. Using literary history as the theoretical framework, this dissertation contends that Modernist commedia-based dramas serve as an appropriate point of departure for comprehending literary reactions to, and reproductions of, the revolutions in technology, politics, and social practices that contributed to the modern order. While representations of cynical clowns, such as Harlequin, were mostly apolitical, the pessimism that dominates the farces, the pantomimes and the puppet plays can be viewed in response to the radically changing social and political environment. The primary focus of this study is to analyze, in the broader literary and historical context, what place Spanish commedia-influenced dramas have in the transnational scope of the European Modernist movment. Narrowing the focus of this investigation to those elements that are salient in the Spanish commedia plays, I investigate Harlequin’s status as a poet in five of these dramas, a role that contrasts significantly with his traditional character, a buffoon. In plays by Jacinto Benavente, Gregorio Martinez Sierra and Ramon del Valle-Inclan, Harlequin’s poetic and psychological depth is observed both through the influence of French Symbolist poetry and as a steward of the changing Modernist Zeitgeist. It is Harlequin’s ability to act independently of his commedia stock characters that insures his immortality, in that his antics are just as much relevant to audiences during the early twentieth century as they have been since he first surfaced in the sixteenth century.
Eugenia Romero, PhD (Advisor)
Stephen Summerhill, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
207 p.
Literature
commedia dellarte; drama

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Saha, A. J. (2014). Modernist Meanings in the European Renovation of Commedia dell'Arte Drama [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397487798

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Saha, Anita. Modernist Meanings in the European Renovation of Commedia dell'Arte Drama. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397487798.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Saha, Anita. "Modernist Meanings in the European Renovation of Commedia dell'Arte Drama." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397487798

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1397487798
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.