Arnaud Rykner Maurice Maeterlinck by Arnaud Rykner (review)

Abstract

specialist can affordnot to have a copy of this superb work on the shelf, and one expects to be able to saythe same about its successor. UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER, JORDANSTOWN GERALD M. MACKLIN L'Envers du Thedtre: Dramaturgie duSilence del'dgeclassique a Maeterlinck. By ARNAUD RYKNER. Paris:Corti. I996. 364pp. 150F. Maurice Maeterlinck. ByARNAUD RYKNER. (Bibliographiedes EcrivainsFrancais,I4) Parisand Rome: Memini. 1998. 657 pp. 6 oF. This doctoralthesison theatreturnedinsideout provesto be a stimulatinginvitation to rethink the important balance of words and silence in the French dramatic tradition, one much given to verbalism. Arnaud Rykner, readily acknowledging and appreciatingthe pioneer work in this field by May Daniels, Leslie Kane, and PeterSzondi, examines the function of silence as a meaningfulelement in dramatic technique in its own rightwith its own qualitiesof expressivity.He foregroundsits importance historically and traces its emergence as an essential feature in much modern theatre,comprehensivelymapping out the growingawarenessof the power of the unspoken. He moves from the traditionalreliance on language to practices post-Maeterlinckthat are prepared to whittle utterance down to a level where it is minimal or virtuallyabsent. While he sees language holding sway from the Grand Siecle through to Giraudoux and Sartre, he finds the seeds of change present alreadyin Racine and Marivaux, new growthfullyevident in Diderot, and the full flowerin Zola and Maeterlinck.He passesover Moliere as being too activelyverbal (as comedy dictates),with the exception of DomJuanand also Romantic drama, as being too much in love with its own voice and given more to a hypertrophicuse of wordsthan to the pregnantpause. The broad sweep of his argumentis the positive enrichment that comes notably with Racine's new idea of tragiccharacters,theirinwardness,and theirinhibitions, typified by Andromaque's determination not to commit herself in words, or the depths of the unspoken in Britannicus and especiallyBerenice, lines 623-24 of which suit his thesis admirably.The development is pursuedin Marivaux,who shows the lighter side of that inner silence and it is here, in La Mereconfidente, that Rykner locates one of the first stage-directions involving the use of silence to impose its rhythm on a scene as well as suspending the tyranny of words: 'On est du temps sans parler' (p. I58). The culmination of the positive use of silence is ascribed to Diderot in both plays and theoretical essays, particularlyto his advice on being natural, with its consequent emphasis on body language and explanatory stagedirections .Diderot's 'premicesd'un renouvellementreel des habitudesd'ecritureet de pens6e' (p. 232), though not followed by Beaumarchaisand others, resurfacein melodramawith itsuse of mime andvisualtheatre,though incliningto stereotypical gesture. The stage-picturewill in turn, but with subtletyand insight, emerge as an importantcontributionto the uses of silence. Zola followsup Diderot's tastefor the natural;forhim place, milieu, the inarticulate(oldMme Raquinforcedinto silence), and even the presence of the past must communicate as much as dialogue itself. The finale of Rykner'sstudyis devoted to the Maeterlinckof the earlyplays and his recourseto discontinuousphrasesand repetitionsas somethingintegralto a new concept of drama and not as mere stylistic procedures. Only through these techniques do we find a 'veritablepoetique du silence' (p. 300). The conclusion, interestinglythough rathertoo summarily,drawsimportantparallelswith, among others,Claudel, Beckett,and Duras. specialist can affordnot to have a copy of this superb work on the shelf, and one expects to be able to saythe same about its successor. UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER, JORDANSTOWN GERALD M. MACKLIN L'Envers du Thedtre: Dramaturgie duSilence del'dgeclassique a Maeterlinck. By ARNAUD RYKNER. Paris:Corti. I996. 364pp. 150F. Maurice Maeterlinck. ByARNAUD RYKNER. (Bibliographiedes EcrivainsFrancais,I4) Parisand Rome: Memini. 1998. 657 pp. 6 oF. This doctoralthesison theatreturnedinsideout provesto be a stimulatinginvitation to rethink the important balance of words and silence in the French dramatic tradition, one much given to verbalism. Arnaud Rykner, readily acknowledging and appreciatingthe pioneer work in this field by May Daniels, Leslie Kane, and PeterSzondi, examines the function of silence as a meaningfulelement in dramatic technique in its own rightwith its own qualitiesof expressivity.He foregroundsits importance historically and traces its emergence as an essential feature in much modern theatre,comprehensivelymapping out the growingawarenessof the power of the unspoken. He moves from the traditionalreliance on language to practices post-Maeterlinckthat are prepared to whittle utterance down to a...