Among the many writers who Martin Essling has classified as “the drama of the absurd”, Jean Genet can be described as distinctive and unique, and he is also a writer who has caused widespread controversy. The reason for making this assertion is, on the one hand, his legendary life experience, and on the other hand, the sensitivity of the subject matter of his works, as well as the “evil” side of the human soul revealed by the works, and through the form of drama It is artistic, and then has a stronger audio-visual impact and shock to the audience, so as to achieve the role of “purifying and sublimating” the human soul that Aristotle endowed tragedy with. All these make Genet an “outlier” in the history of French literature in the 20th century. On the one hand, his talent has won him wide support, especially the help of literati artists, such as Cocteau who once defended him in court. , and Sartre not only went out in person and jointly signed the literary and art circles to petition the president to request the commutation of Genet’s sentence, but also wrote a preface to Genet’s novel “The Diary of a Thief”, and wrote tens of thousands of words, calling him “actor, saint, Martyrs”, gave a high evaluation of Genet’s works. On the other hand, his works are full of behaviors that are despised by the orthodox society, such as theft, prostitution, homosexuality, drug use, and even many of his works have been judged by the authorities as “indecent and pornographic”. Genet himself also As a result, he was sentenced to prison or fined to get out. In the history of French literature, such examples are not uncommon. Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” also suffered the same fate at the beginning of its release. The experience seems to have become commonplace for Rene. From this, we can also glimpse the boldness of Genet’s dramatic works. In this sense, Genet not only challenged traditional morality, but also tested people’s tolerance for artistic appreciation. Probably because of this, some people call Genet the “Baudelaire” of the 20th century, which also shows his status in the history of literature.
Like many geniuses and geeks, Genet is an out-and-out “marginal person” in society. His mother was a prostitute, and he had to be separated from his mother shortly after birth, and was later adopted by a farmer. Since he was a teenager, Genet has been dealing with correctional institutions and prisons, and he has been imprisoned many times for theft. Later, he began to travel around the world, leaving his footprints in many places from North Africa to southern Europe. In a sense, it may not be an exaggeration to say that people are the most narcissistic animals. All artists always project their own shadows into their works more or less in their creations. In fact, this is the only way In order to create truly flesh and blood, touching works. Such turbulent life encounters made Genet in frequent contact with marginalized people at the bottom of society, such as thieves, prostitutes, homosexuals, murderers, etc., which provided material for his future literary creation, even his first work. “Death Row” was also created because he was stimulated by inmates in prison. Since then, Genet has embarked on the road of literary creation, and has shown rare talent and poetry. His works are like a huge The shock wave shocked the whole of France time and time again. Genet wrote poetry and novels, but it was drama that made him famous in the end, and he himself was very fond of drama creation later, and put a lot of energy and effort into it. ” in the most efficient way.
Genet’s main achievements are in theatrical writing. Genet’s theatrical career has been splendid since the publication of Close Watch and The Handmaid in 1947. Drama has become the most effective way for Genet to show his “existence”, and it is also the way for him to express himself and relieve pain. In the 1950s, Genet basically devoted all his energy to the creation of plays. His more mature works include “The Balcony”, “The Negro” and “The Screen”. Like many literary critics, I also think that Essling’s classification of Genet’s work as a “drama of the absurd” is somewhat inappropriate. Whether in terms of creative ideas or the actual stage performance of the works, Genet’s plays are similar to the vast majority of “absurdist plays” (if we can agree with Beckett and Ionesco to a large extent) As a representative of the “absurdist drama”), it is far away, especially in terms of language, compared with Beckett and Ionesco’s fragmentation and repeated nonsense, Genet is very rational and closer to traditional drama. In my opinion, there are two main reasons why Genet can have such a wide-ranging and far-reaching influence: First, the boldness of the subject matter of his dramatic works and the profoundness of the content of the performance, in other words, Genet has enough courage It is not enough to show the most evil aspects of the human soul to the audience. He even praises Satan the devil, revealing the conditions of human existence; secondly, Genet’s plays have formed their own distinctive ritualized style characteristics. , from this point of view, Genet seems to be closer to Aalto’s “brutal drama” than the absurdist drama, but not quite the same. Like Aalto, both Genet and Aalto show contempt and disdain for Western traditional drama, and both have a strong interest in Eastern drama, and their pursuit of strong ritualistic and almost religious drama can be regarded as the common point of the two. However, Genet did not fundamentally deny the traditional literary script, and he did not use drama as a weapon to save society like Aalto did. Genet’s drama only revealed the illusory world covered by layers of illusion.
What is the theatrical world in Genet’s writings? Genet once wrote: I go to the theater to see myself, to see myself that I cannot or dare not see or wake up to (becoming a character or through some kind of diversity). character and the form of the story) appearing on the stage, as I can really be myself. It can be seen that what Genet pursues is an anti-traditional and anti-realistic drama, and the ritualized style of his theatrical works just proves this. In addition, Renet is very partial to the technique of “play within play”, which is also an important feature of his works. Unlike the traditional Shakespearean “play within a play”, Genet’s “play within a play” becomes an integral part of the development of the plot. In 1954, Genet’s “The Maid” was staged. The work described two maids (two sisters) playing the game of playing the mistress. They coveted everything the mistress had and were jealous of her beauty, wealth and status, so they wanted to take revenge on the mistress. Instead, her tea is poisoned, and finally the disguised “hostess” falls, while the real servant lives on in the imaginary. This work caused quite a stir in the society, and Genet was also charged by the court with indecent and pornographic crimes. However, Genet’s creative enthusiasm did not decrease because of this, and instead he created the breathtaking “Balcony” boldly.
”The Balcony” was first staged in 1956. To a large extent, this work can reflect the characteristics of Renei’s creative method and concept, creative theme type, drama style, etc. On the other hand, it has reached a higher level than before. To put it simply, “The Balcony” is a larger-scale play within a play, and the people in the play are also acting in a play. The script describes a brothel where customers can do whatever they want to satisfy their desires, play any role they want to be, or even perform a revolution. What “The Balcony” shows is an upside-down world, a place where human desires are nakedly expressed, sketching out the greed, ignorance and darkest side in the depths of human hearts, but Genet seems to be full of filth and The performance of sin becomes a religious ceremony in which the participants sacrifice to evil with the same piety and zeal as the saints. From this, it is not difficult for us to understand the hymn-like language uttered by those virtuous “big men”, even the brothel has become a sacred place. The people in the play wander in and out of the play, from one character to another, from one self to another: in order to satisfy their egomania, the gas company clerks act as bishops and preach solemnly; The king of France is being coronated: the “judge” is satisfied by the cries of the accused; the “admiral” is to be sunk with the torpedo boat; the common people are making trouble because someone wants to be the chief of police, and so on. These reveal from one side the psychology of people at the bottom of the society who are eager to climb up, but in vain and ended in failure. However, not everyone can freely enter from one self to another, and can come out in time and return to the original self, which is precisely the tragedy of the characters in the play, and it is also what each of us may face. problem. The lover and collaborator of the brothel owner, Mrs. Irma, was the police chief, who suppressed popular disturbances. News came that the palace had been bombed, and the queen and her entourage were killed. In order to suppress a large-scale revolution, the people had to be convinced that the news was false, so Mrs. Irma became a queen, and her patrons became bishops, judges, and generals. The revolution died down quickly, but the phony bishops, judges, and generals realized that they could no longer abandon their dreams. The most tragic thing is the leader of the trouble, who went to Irma’s brothel after failure and wanted to become the police chief, but was castrated and buried in an imaginary mausoleum, just like the end of a hero at the end. Genet’s plays express his understanding of the world in a refracted way: everything in this world is nothing but illusion, deception and nightmares, and human life is a reflection of its own shape. The distorted reflection of the image, so Genet loves the mirror for ten minutes, the executioner and the female defendant in “The Balcony” are used as the mirror of the judge, the troublemaker is the mirror of the police chief, everything is a reflection of lies and absurdity in a world doomed to destruction phantom. In Genet’s view, the self presented in the superficial illusion is more real, purer, and more deceiving than the reality.
Genet’s theatrical world is like this, the real and the fake are full of delusions. Only by peeling off the layers of illusions and mists can we truly understand the meaning of Genet’s drama, which is the discussion of human nature, especially the human nature. The ruthless exposure and deep analysis of the “evil” part of the book is his theme, and it is worthy of our continued attention and research.
