Converging theories and emerging practices: The voices, visions and women of Marie Laberge's theatre.
Item
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Title
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Converging theories and emerging practices: The voices, visions and women of Marie Laberge's theatre.
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Identifier
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AAI9530871
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identifier
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9530871
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Creator
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Gargano, Cara L.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Renee Waldinger
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Canadian (English) | Theater | Women's Studies
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Abstract
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The struggle for cultural and linguistic survival that has marked Quebecois theatre for over 250 years, and the vital but ambiguous position of language in that society are forces that remain at the heart of today's theatre in Quebec, and continue to be both the subject and the object of its dramatic inquiry. Marie Laberge's dramatization of language draws not only on the French Canadian split identity specified by Jean Bouthillette, but specifically on the inherent tension between word, motivation, objective, obstacle and subtext that is the essence of the theatre. Laberge is part of a new generation of playwrights who came of age after the valorisation of French as the official language of the Province in 1976, and whose work focusses more on the rights of the individual than on the needs of the collective. Laberge uses the word "provocative" to describe her relation to language, implying not only a revolutionary stance but a relationship of desire and passion as well. An overview of Laberge's oeuvre shows a remarkable evolution on several fronts. I will argue that while many of her contemporaries are pointing to the poverty of our language, Laberge is moving toward a re-poeticization of theatrical language; while much of today's theatre focusses on human isolation, she seems to be moving toward a theatre of choral harmony and healing, and a theatre where women are extremely corps-presente. I will show that the mythic properties of her work attempt to redraw the balance between the Credo of social order and the Libido that characterizes the artist's need to "remake the world.".
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
