L’Homme et ses fantomes by Henri-René Lenormand is one of the most expressionist pieces of the French writer, today already forgotten. Inspired by the works of August Strindberg, the author of the drama explores new ways of expression. The analysed work is an example of a stationplay, which was the favourite form of expressionist playwrights.
PL
Mężczyzna i jego upiory Henri-René Lenormanda jest jedną z najbardziej ekspresjonistycznych sztuk tego dzisiaj zapomnianego już pisarza francuskiego. Zainspirowany twórczością Augusta Strindberga, autor dramatu poszukiwać będzie nowych dróg ekspresji. Analizowany utwór jest przykładem dramatu stacyjnego, który będzie ulubioną formą dramatopisarzy ekspresjonistycznych.
August Strindberg is considered the herald of modern drama. His protean work, which goes from naturalism to mystical aesthetics, anticipating surrealism and the theater of the absurd, even today defies, as it did in his epoch, by its brutal or cruel aspects. Without any doubt, the origin of a certain mistrust towards the author of Inferno would be his declared misogyny. It could be criticized on this subject for disclosing prejudices against women, which in the form of stereotypes, survive to this day. Nevertheless, many French playwrights are inspired by the infernal conflict between man and woman that the Swede describes with a stripping frenzy. Indeed, by analyzing the plays of the French theater of the first half of the 20th century, we notice that some authors take up the motive of the “struggle of the sexes” that will be reworked or “modernized” in their own way. It is interesting in this regard to study the vehicular discourse of clichés on women, found in the works of writers such as Henri-René Lenormand (A Secret Life), Jean Anouilh (Waltz of the Toreadors) and Jean Vauthier (Captain Bada). While none of these playwrights has ever openly declared their hostility to the so-called weaker sex, their texts provide a valuable reservoir of common ground on male-female relationships, which in most cases have not lost their actuality.
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