Écrire la fragilité de l’existence humaine ou comment exprimer l’agonie (“Bataille navale” de Reinhard Goering, “Pique-nique en campagne” et “Guernica” de Fernando Arrabal)
Writing the Fragility of Human Existence or How to Express Agony (“Sea battle” by Reinhard Goering, “Picnic on the Battlefield” and “Guernica” by Fernando Arrabal)

Author(s): Tomasz Kaczmarek
Subject(s): Literary Texts, Drama
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Reinhard Goering; Fernando Arrabal; agony; apocalypse; war; destruction
Summary/Abstract: In this article, the author studies the dramas which, while exposing the absurdity of war, express an apocalyptic vision of humanity doomed to its destruction. Whether it is Reinhard Goering’s “Sea battle” or Arrabal’s dramas (“Picnic on the Battlefield” and “Guernica”) we are witnessing an obvious renewal of the tragedy. However, the authors do not apply the rules specific to the canonical genre, but by shining a light on the precarious condition of modern man, they paint a world in its self-destruction where there is no place for catharsis. Tragic in its modernized version inevitably provokes the shaking of the dramatic form which testifies not only to human agony but also to that of dramatic art. In fact, the two playwrights undermine the main foundations of “absolute drama”, deconstructing the action in the classic sense of the word and depriving their characters of their active attributes of a hero of traditional theater.

• Details
• Contents