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Thesis

French

ID: <

10670/1.zsqpx5

>

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Un prophète à Tophet Un prophète à Tophet: August Strindberg relit Jérémie

Abstract

Can a gesture made during a theatrical performance and a prophetic gesture be compared? Can a dramatic text itself have a "prophetic" vocation, in the sense that it awakens the consciousness of its audience? This is the central question of this research. To approach it, we propose to study the way in which the Swedish playwright August Strindberg (1849-1912), one of the fathers of modern theatre, interprets in his last drama, The Great Highway (1909), the prophecy of Jeremiah. Proclaiming the divine word essentially in Jerusalem, at the end of the 6th century BC, the prophet Jeremiah is also sent to Tophet (Jr 7: 31.32; 19, 6.11.12.13.14), a place that alone symbolizes the perversion of the Israelites (Jr 19:1-20:2). It is here that Jeremiah is invited to perform a prophetic act, which unites gesture with words to strengthen the latter: Jeremiah must break a vessel to announce the destruction of Jerusalem. In Strindberg’s drama, a preacher arrives in a town calls Tophet, where he receives a Japanese vase in order to turn it into a funeral urn. Associated to a critical speech against a materialistic society, the object becomes a sign of a merchant’s tragic life, linked to the destiny of his hometown, Hiroshima. Through a comparative analysis, that focuses on the mission of the hero, the functions of the place and of the vase – an object imprinted of man’s life and choices, the theses addresses the relationship between theatre and prophecy. The two domains are approached through a performative analyse, but also with the help of narrative and structural grammar

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