In what ways can a playwright’s implicit assumptions about the nature
of theatrical reality affect the representation of otherness in his or
her characters? How does this dynamic intersect with a playwright's stated
politics? French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès (1941-1989) explained
that his writing was in part rooted in his energetic anti-hegemonic and
anti-neo-imperialist convictions. However, his first two major plays, Combat
de nègre et de chiens [Black Battles with Dogs] (1983) and Quai
ouest [Quay West] (1985) betray a re-inscription of colonialist representational
tropes, particularly in the depiction of the play's pivotal black characters.
A close analysis of his earliest play, Les Amertumes, [The Bitternesses]
(1970) reveals the author’s pursuit of the collapse of ontological boundaries
between the actor and the dramatic character, and between the actor and
the audience. Drawing on discussions of Artaud, Stanislavski, Grotowski
and Brecht, this paper will investigate the manner in which Koltès'
early convictions about the potentials of theatrical reality, inflected
as they were with essentialist understandings of identity, carried over
into the representation of ethnicity in his later plays.
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