Panorama du théâtre français du XXème siècle / Panorama of XXth Century French Theatre

This course will provide an overall approach to XXth Century French Theatre so that students can read plays critically but also understand and analyze them in the context of the evolution of theatre throughout the century. The course will consider the four major theatrical movements: traditional (Giraudoux), surrealist (Cocteau, Artaud), existentialist (Camus, Sartre), and absurdist (Beckett, Ionesco, Tardieu). The second part of the course will focus on this last peculiar movement in order to understand how the overrideing concern of its playwrights with linguistic experimentation generates a paradox: on the one hand they seem to shoe the arbitrariness and sterility of language while on the other, they also seem to demonstrate its infinite potential for regeneration and expansion.

Texts: Jarry, Ubu, Roi ; Giraudoux, La Guerre de Troi n'aura pas lieu ; Artaud, Le théatre et son double ; Cocteau, Les mariés de la tour Eiffel ; Sartre, Huis Clos ; Camus, Caligula ; Beckett, En attendant Godot ; Ionesco La cantatrice chauve ; Tardieu, Les Amants du métro.