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A PAINTER OF THE ABSURD: READING THROUGH AND BEYOND EUGÈNE IONESCO’S HUMANISM by ANA-MARIA M’ENESTI A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Romance Languages and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2014 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Ana-Maria M’Enesti Title: A Painter of the Absurd: Reading Through and Beyond Eugène Ionesco’s Humanism This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Romance Languages by: Alexandre Albert-Galtier Chairperson Karen McPherson Core Member Massimo Lollini Core Member John Schmor Institutional Representative and J. Andrew Berglund Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded December 2014 ii © 2014 Ana-Maria M’Enesti iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Ana-Maria M’Enesti Doctor of Philosophy Department of Romance Languages December 2014 Title: A Painter of the Absurd: Reading Through and Beyond Eugène Ionesco’s Humanism The Theatre of the Absurd often has been considered the reflection of a deconstructionist gesture, a negation of the existent theatrical norms, therefore an end in itself without any prospect of possible alternatives or remedies. While this may be partially true, the entropy inherent to the absurd does not adhere to a mechanically formal posture; rather, the “purposeless wandering”, in Eugène Ionesco’s case, points, through humor (Ce formidable bordel), toward a longing for meaning, deeply rooted in the human being. This very longing is the crux of Ionesco’s humanism. For him suffering (Le Roi se meurt), as the offshoot of the human being’s finite condition and the affect that bonds the community, is intertwined with an unexplained feeling of wonderment—an opening to contemplation of the infinite. The merging of suffering and wonderment that suffuses Ionesco’s textual and visual works presents the field in which his vision of a metaphysical humanism must find form. Art, in Ionesco’s perspective, as the expression of being and the witness of its time (Rhinocéros), can be understood as a redemptive medium, a hope for humanism. Through the interplay of text (plays, reflections and short stories), image (drawings, gouaches and lithographs) and performance, this dissertation explores themes, imagery and structures that reflect Ionesco’s paradoxical view on humanism. Thus, in light of interdisciplinary readings, I identify archetypal images recurrent in Ionesco’s works and his subversive interpretation of these images as revelatory of the author-painter’s inner search for meaning. This quest, which is the unifying principle throughout Ionesco’s work, is revealed in themes spanning from the entropy of language (La Cantatrice chauve, Les Chaises) to the sacrificial act of iv substituting for the other (Maximilien Kolbe). In this ultimate act of testimony, Ionesco depicts Emmanuel Lévinas’ ethics wherein the self becomes a “hostage” of the other, vulnerable at the encounter with the other. My analysis of Ionesco’s humanism continues beyond his works with a reading of the historicized absurd and humanism in the works of two contemporary diasporic playwrights: Matéi Visniec and Saviana Stanescu. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Ana-Maria M’Enesti GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Romance Languages, 2014, University of Oregon Master of Arts, French Literature, 2006, Simon Fraser University Bachelor of Arts, French, 2001, Portland State University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: 20th- 21st Century French, Francophone, Italian, Romanian Literatures, Theater Studies, Testimonial Writings, Women Writings, Shoah Literature, Postcolonial Theory, Critical Theory, Autobiographical Writing, Humanist and Post-humanist Studies PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2007 – 2014 Teaching Assistant, Simon Fraser University, 2002 - 2005 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Professional Development Grant, 2008 Professional Development Grant, 2010 Beall Graduate Dissertation Scholarship, Spring 2011 Professional Development Grant, 2011 Beall Graduate Scholarship –semester of study in Lyon, France, Fall 2011 vi Luvaas Graduate Fellowship, Fall, Winter, Spring 2011-2012 Professional Development Grant, 2012 Bakony Professional Development Grant, Fall 2012 Professional Development Grant, 2013 Professional Development Grant, 2014 PUBLICATIONS: M’Enesti, Ana-Maria. “The Representation of Petrarch in the Eighteenth-century Encyclopédie.” Humanist Studies and the Digital Age. 1.1 (2011): 136-144. Print. M’Enesti, Ana-Maria. “Dialectics of apocalyptic imagery in Eugène Ionesco’s theatre.”Ed. Archer Leona, Stuart, Alex. Visions of Apocalypse: Representations of the End in French Literature and culture (Modern French identities, vol. 111), Bern: Peter Lang, 2013. 179-189. Print. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Albert-Galtier for his unwavering support in the preparation of this manuscript. His expertise in performance and his contagious passion for theater and visual arts have been a source of inspiration for me. In addition, special thanks are due to Professor McPherson, who has been incredibly supportive of my work and whose pertinent comments and suggestions played a vital role in the improvement of my style and in the overall organization of this dissertation. I thank Professor Lollini for his assistance: his course on humanism was keystone as it helped shaping the theoretical framework of my dissertation. I also thank Professor Schmor for supporting the staging of one of Ionesco’s plays at the Pocket Theater (University of Oregon) and for agreeing to serve in the committee as the institutional representative. This dissertation was possible also because of the financial support of the Romance Languages Department: notably, the Beall scholarship has allowed me to spend four months in France and research at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and at L’Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, where I watched recordings of various performances of Ionesco’s plays—a visual support that greatly informed my dissertation. This dissertation would have not been completed without the steadfast help from my peers and friends from the Department of Romance Languages who invested countless hours proofreading, and who continually encouraged me to persevere. Therefore, I thank Alexandra, Sandra, Aara, Sabina, Anna, Patrick, Antonella. I also thank Matt for editing parts of my dissertation. I wish to express my profound gratitude to my family from Portland for their prayers and utter belief in me; to my husband for his love and unyielding support: from viii carrying the household chores, taking care of our son so that I can focus on writing, to reading my dissertation and providing his valuable comments and expertise on theater. Lastly, I thank God for his loving companionship all along this journey. ix To my father x TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 Notes ..................................................................................................................... 13 II. HUMANISM AND ART ....................................................................................... 14 Art as «communication d’un incommunicable» .................................................... 28 Ionesco and His Critics ......................................................................................... 39 Notes ..................................................................................................................... 49 III. A HUMANISM OF ARCHETYPES .................................................................... 52 The Art of Silence ................................................................................................. 54 The Radiant City: Paradise or Utopist Disillusion? ............................................... 66 The Column: From Ascendance to Apocalyptic Revelation ................................. 82 Notes ..................................................................................................................... 103 IV. HUMANISM AND THE OTHER: FROM LANGUAGE ENTROPY, REBELLION TO THE SUBSTITUTION FOR THE OTHER ............................ 106 The Entropy of Language ..................................................................................... 107 Bérenger - A Hero in Spite of Himself ................................................................. 121 In Place of the Other ............................................................................................. 134 Notes ..................................................................................................................... 150 V. THE HUMANISM OF LAUGHTER: AWARENESS AND REDEMPTION ..................................................................................................... 153 The Comic, a Dramatic Construction ................................................................... 158 Macbett - A Travesty of Power ............................................................................. 163 Le Roi se meurt – The Parody of the Ritual ..........................................................
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