The Evolution of the Theatre D'analyse in France Between 1870— 1914
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1962 The volutE ion of the Theatre d'ANALYSE in France Between 1870-1914. Kathleen Bordelon Levingston Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Levingston, Kathleen Bordelon, "The vE olution of the Theatre d'ANALYSE in France Between 1870-1914." (1962). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 730. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/730 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been 62-3656 microfilmed exactly as received LEVINGSTON, Kathleen Bordelon, 1922- THE EVOLUTION OF THE THEATRE D’ANALYSE IN FRANCE BETWEEN 1870-1914. Louisiana State University, Ph.D., 1962 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE EVOLUTION OF THE THEATRE D'ANALYSE IN FRANCE BETWEEN 1870— 1914 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Foreign Languages fcy Kathleen Bordelon Levingston M.A., Louisiana State University, 1958 January, 1962 ACKN OWLEDGEMEN T The writer acknowledges her indebtedness to D r . Elliott Dow Healy, Professor of French at Louisiana State University, for encouragement and guidance offered her during the prepa ration of this dissertation and is particularly grateful to him for his perceptive appreciation of the subject of the study. She acknowledges also the helpful suggestions made by Dr. Kenneth R. Wilson-Jones and Dr. Calvin Evans. o TABLE OP CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............. ii ABSTRACT ......................................... v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ......... *.................. 1 II THE CONCEPT OP THE ECRIT IN T I M E ............... 10 III THE EVOLUTION OP THEANALYTICAL APPROACH 1870— 1890 ................................ 26 Dumas (Pfere)........................... 27 Victorien Sardou ....................... 28 La Patrie La Tosca Georges de Porto-Riche . ................... 40 La Chance de Frangoise L 1Infidkle Maurice Maeterlinck ..................... 57 La Princesse Maleine Paul Claudel................................ 68 T6 te d'or L'Annonce faite h Marie Le Theatre Lihre ............... 76 Eugene Brieux .............................. 79 Henri Lave da n .............................. 81 La Famille Le Nouveau .jeu iii IV THE DEVELOPMENT OP FORMAL PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA 1890— 1914 ......... 8 6 Georges de Porto-Riche ...................... 91 Amoureuse Jules Lemaitre................. 108 Le D£put£ Leveau Mariage Blanc Frangois de Curel . ..................... 113 L'Envers d Tune sainte Maurice Maeterlinck ...................... 124 ?£Il£as et Mglisande Maurice Donnay ....................... 131 Amants Henri lave da n .............................. 145 Le Prince d'Aurec Le Duel Le Marquis de Priola Paul Hervieu................................ 160 Les Tenailles L'Enigme La Course du flambeau Le Didale Henri Bataille..................... 167 La Ldpreuse L'Holocauste La Marche nuptiale Poliche La Pemme nue Henry Bernstein .......................... 171 Georges de Porto-Riche......... 173 Le Yieil Homme V CONCLUSIONS ........................... 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........... 180 AUTOBIOGRAPHY ....................... , 187 iv ABSTRACT Though introspection in the purest sense of the word is rare in any literature, the French character seems peculiarly suited to it, and French literature, particu larly from the time of Montaigne, has Been markedly char acterized By some form of self-examination. The skilfull use of psychology also seems indigenous to the French literary personality. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, specifically Between 1870 and 1914, there devel oped in dramatic procedures a psychological technique similar to that of the great Classicists, But very differ ent in its concepts. Unlike the Classical method, which applied itself universally to large groups of people, the later one involved the psychology of the individual. This later dramatic psychology concerned itself with emotional problems, particularly with those arising from irregular love and sex relationships. It proBed deeply into the inner mind of the character in search of hidden motives for Behavior. Dramatists of the period 1870-1914 studied love, not only as the great motivating passion con ceived By Racine two centuries earlier, But also as an emotion which under given conditions would conduct itself in normal or in abnormal fashion. By means of the sex or v triangle play theatrical writers gave expression to the con suming public interest in the behavior of guilty love. Though the background for the formal psychological drama which developed after 1 8 7 0 had been prepared in the introspective nature of the French personality and litera ture of preceding periods, a quite steady evolution of interest in the study of problematical love and the use of psychology in dramatic procedures is obvious from the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The Romantics (such as Musset, Furnas pfere, and Vigny) made wide use of the love theme with increasing interest in the triangle. Realists (Furnas fils and Augier, for example) made pioneer attempts at analysis of the feminine heart with dramas like La Fame aux cam&Lias in 1852. It was not until after 1870 that the theme of guilty passion took precedence over all others and became a very strong dramatic appeal. In Victorien Sardou's La Patrie (1 8 6 9 ) the love triangle is present but is clearly subordi nate to the theme of patriotism. However, in his La Tosca (1 8 8 7 ), eighteen years later, there is a decided effort to portray a consuming feminine passion. Georges de Porto-Riche, with the two one-act plays, La Chance de Francoise (1 8 8 8 ) and L *Infidble (1890), is credited with having introduced the delicate, probing pro cedures, the Classical power of focus, the overwhelming interest in the problems involved in the love triangle, and in the inner world of the mind— all of which are basic to the th£g.tre d*analyse. A new emphasis on a more intel lectual and spiritual concept of love had been predicted earlier (in 1852) by Michelet. Contemporary with and fol lowing Porto-Riche the symbolists (particularly Maeterlinck) and the Th££tre Libre of Andr£ Antoine gave great impetus and refinement to the newly-developed analytical techniques. The th££tre d 1analyse reached its greatest development . in the work of Porto-Riche (Amoureuse, 1891), Maurice Don- nay (Amants, 1895), and Henri Lavedan (Le Duel, 1905). These dramatists, with supreme interest in the analysis of the emotional problems of their characters, are supported by others of almost equal magnitude (Curel, Lemaitre, and Hervieu, for example) and are followed by a second onslaught of writers whose preoccupation with the psychology of love prolonged the life of the analytical theater. The notice able interest of these later writers (particularly Bataille and Bernstein) in the physical aspects of sex indicates, if not a beginning decline of delicate psychological drama, a changing, emphasis which was to manifest itself more strongly, after the war years. vii INTRODUCTION Hugh Allison Smith in his work Main Currents in Modem French Drama**- insisted that the qualities of French drama which are basically and characteristically French are those of logic, reason, clairvoyance, order and realism. There should not be, he continued, and actually is no marked emphasis on the imaginative world of unreality, mysticism, or truth arrived at symbolically. The psychology dealt with in the drama, if typically French, is a mass psychology, applicable universally to large groups of people. Indi vidual introspection and reaction, according to Smith, are not instinctively French characteristics and are not repre sentative of the best in French drama. In the main there is no quarrel with Smith's thesis. It has certainly been true that the classical ideal has been paramount in the French theater from its earliest beginnings. Both before and after the peaks reached in the seventeenth century, psychological development has been one of the chief concerns of the drama, and in the tradition of Racine it has met with varying degrees of success. The * *4iugh Allison Smith, "Introduction,” Main Currents in Mo d e m French Drama (New Yorks Henry Holt and Co., 1925), pp. ±ti-xv. 1 2 "■tradition of Eacine" implies not only the intensely per sonal introspection required for the attempted resolution of some great inward conflict but also the development of that introspective thinking along the lines of precision, clarity, and logical good sense— in short, according to classical models. It is hardly altogether accurate, how ever, to speak of classic order and objectivity as being so instinctive and fundamental in French literature as to crowd into a place of little importance the lyric repre sentation of individual, human emotions. By 1923, the date of Staiith's writing, either not enough time had elap sed to provide a broad perspective, or the outstanding writers of the period directly preceding 1925 (Lavedan,