Existential Drama Research Articles

Domestic violence of representatives of the LGBT and queer communities

The article is devoted to the analysis of the problem of domestic violence in the lives of persons with a special sexual identity. The article is based on the study of expert and analytical reports, international monitoring and positions of foreign scientists of various socio-humanitarian and legal schools.
 It is indicated that violence against LGBT people can be considered as a hidden disharmony in societal relations, where the discovery of sexual orientation or gender identity causes a negative resonance, the problem encapsulates a deeper feeling of non­recognition and attacks the basic principles of humanism and equality. Violence directed against LGBT individuals can serve as an indicator of systemic inequality and a crisis of values in society, LGBT violence is a form of assassination of the very essence of dignity and freedom inherent in every person. It becomes a sign of internal dissonance, where the conflict between the individual and society merges into a painful existential drama.
 It is motivated that adult children are less likely to be subjected to domestic violence than LGBT representatives, which is special in the context of socio-cultural, religious and stereotypical ideas that exist in some societies. Parents and relatives often pressure their children about their sexual or gender identity, which can lead to a variety of negative consequences, including emotional and physical abuse. The fear of discovering one's sexual orientation or gender identity becomes a source of conflicts in the family. Parents can react to this with pressure, contempt or refusal to accept, as stereotypes and prejudices can also provoke the formation of a negative attitude of parents from others and the community.
 The peculiarities of the manifestation of domestic violence among representatives of the LGBT and queer communities are determined, in particular, the phenomenon is more widespread compared to people who have a classic sexual identity; issues of domestic violence from parents and family due to sexual identity, often involving coercion into marriage, procreation and confidential therapy; exposed to additional forms of violence (threat of publicizing identity features, homophobia, unprotected relationships).

F. Chopin's Ballads in Representation of Biedermeier's Ideas

The purpose of the work is to identify the Biedermeier features of thinking in F. Chopin’s large forms in the embodiment of the ideas of the spiritualised "light" play of the noble salon gatherings in memory of the historical Greater Poland. Such a heroic and melancholic background of Chopin's presentation of his achievements, especially within large forms, inspired the understanding of the thought orientation (according to I. Belza) of his thinking. The research methodology is the intonation vision of the genetic unity of musical and speech principles in the development of the concept of B. Asafiev and B. Yavorsky based on the works of D. Androsova, O. Markova, L. Stepanova, L. Shevchenko, with an emphasis on the hermeneutical perspective of the intonation approach, as well as with the advancement of methods – biographical and descriptive, with emphasis on the intellectual-biographical aspect for the sake of accuracy of interpretive indicators of the analysis of works, analytical and structural as a concentration of musicological specificity of thematic and constructive features of compositions, interspecies stylistic comparative for understanding the interactions of artistic and scientific-religious tendencies in the environment of F Chopin. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by the reliance on Biedermeier's concept of "the big in the small" in the analysis of the large ballad forms, especially with regard to the initial Warsaw and late periods, the time of the composer’s formation and final search. Conclusions. Biedermeier draws out the underestimated tempo-factual essence of Chopin's presentation of those forms that, in high tempo playing, "dematerialised" the theatrical variegation of expression in favour of bringing the Ballades closer to the thoughtful, i.e. lyric-epic forms. The latter appear prolonged in the hallelujah complex of Chopin's ultra-fast playing as a representative of spiritualised salon light pianism, with its distancing from existential drama in favour of the glorious lyricism of the "pearl" fioriture of sound in the spirit of the passage figurativeness of old church singing. The parallel of F. Chopin's thoughtful thinking with his contemporary and passionate confessor of the national idea T. Shevchenko’s poetic and thoughtful content of the genre expression of large-scale compositions is noteworthy.
 Key words: ballad, genre in music, biedermeier, "light" style of piano playing, F. Chopin's thoughtfulness.

The Feminist Potential of Beatrice Helen Barmby’s Gísli Súrsson: A Drama

The late Victorian Britain was fascinated with the ancient North. British literary authors of the second half of the nineteenth century sought inspiration for their novels, poems, and plays in medieval Icelandic imagery. One of these authors was Beatrice Helen Barmby, author of Gísli Súrsson: A Drama. Since her authorship has largely been forgotten, this paper is an attempt to reintroduce her as one of the Victorian enthusiasts of Old Norse literature. Gísli Súrsson: A Drama (1900) is a play based on the medieval Gísla saga Súrssonar. Notably, the adaptation centres around the relationships between the main characters rather than the existential drama of the outlaw Gísli. I argue that the play can be interpreted as an invitation to consider women’s rights, or the Woman Question, a topic which excited heated debates in late nineteenth-century Britain. The play’s depiction of marriage is especially close to the early liberal feminist critique of the inferior role of women as harmful for both women and men. On the other hand, the play portrays Gísli’s wife Aud as a universally stoic and moral character, a domestically emancipated free woman. This paper thus analyses Gísli Súrsson: A Drama as a Victorian work on Old Norse-inspired themes with activist potential.

Metaphors in Laszlo Darvasi’s Short Stories of Magic Realism

This paper explores the specifics of Laszlo Darvasi’s poetic language
 aimed at creating original metaphors and similes based on universal images. The
 purpose of the analysis is to disclose some tropological techniques that allow us
 to interpret some of the mysterious and vague stories of the modern Hungarian
 writer who used the style of magical realism.
 The method of this study should be considered as a lingupoetic approach
 to the tropes presented primarily by A.A. Potebnya.
 The results confirm the literary significance of Darvasi’s poetic world:
 rethinking of traditional images (including wood, a tree, a stone, a mountain), as
 well as deployment and realization of unexpected and incompatible combinations
 of semantisation. The presented interpretation gives an opportunity to look deeper
 into the unique phenomenon in modern Hungarian literature that brings together
 real historical events (labor camps or revolution) and archetypal images in an unusual poetic system. The tragic causes of historical situations are not disclosed by the writer, who focuses mainly on existential threat and life drama lurking in everyday life. The metaphorical plan contributes to the creation of this meaning. The results of the study, conducted in this article, can be used not only to familiarize new trends in literature of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but also to study tropological issues.

The Ordeal of a Sixth-Century Josef K: Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae as a Modernist Drama

In recent scholarship, several views have been propounded on the argumentative inconsistencies in Boethius’ De consolatione Philosophiae and the inconclusiveness of its ending. In this article, it is argued that modern scholars still, perhaps unconsciously, adhere to aristotelian concepts of unity, coherence, and closure, which may not be helpful in assessing what Boethius is really trying to say. When analysed from a perspective usually associated with modernist literature, it becomes clear that Boethius’ swan song is neither a deconstruction of “pagan” philosophy nor an implicit plea for Christian spirituality but a an existential drama in which religion and philosophy do not provide any consolation.

Introduction

Introduction Ryan Thomas Skinner (bio) Djibril Tamsir Niane’s Soundjata ou l’épopée mandingue (1960) is, without a doubt, one of the most important texts published in African studies in the twentieth century. To the readers of this journal, the book is also arguably one of the most important modern publications of any kind. The breadth and depth of Soundjata’s influence—on Mande studies, African studies, and the human-istic enterprise more generally—cannot be overstated. In the wake of Niane’s recent passing (1932–2021), and in light of Soundjata’s long published lifespan, now entering its seventh decade, it is an opportune time to pay homage to and reflect on the significance and substance of Niane’s seminal work and influential life. Published on the cusp of African independence from European colonial rule, Soundjata is profoundly, indeed foundationally, postcolonial. The text presents an archetypal story of triumph over adversity in terms of both the character arc of its main protagonist, Sunjata Keita—from outcast to emperor—and the society that this singular Mande Mansa is destined to establish, turning a modest kingdom into a mighty empire. To Pan-Africanists and anticolonial activists alike, then as now, Niane’s text is equal parts revelatory and revolutionary, revealing a historic precedent for modern aspirations for African renaissance and unity. Soundjata also makes a full-throated case for the historical and cultural value of oral traditions, and the art of the griot (jeliya) in particular. In the face of obscurantist and injurious colonial “myths,” to paraphrase Herskovits, “of the African past,” Soundjata makes a rich and uplifting case for the status, identity, and importance of griots (jeliw) and their societal role as the guardians and purveyors of Mande society’s collective memory. African history prior to [End Page 7] colonial rule is not, in other words, a shameful blank slate to be filled in by “civilization,” but a vivid tapestry born of cultures that run deep and live on. In the hands of present-day readers, and in university and college classrooms the world over, Soundjata may be further understood as emphatically decolonial. Racist and dehumanizing “ideas of Africa,” anchored in age-old stereotypes and prejudices, give way to the existential drama of the Mande epic with its myriad lessons for human being, belonging, and becoming, from intercultural communication and community formation to confronting and overcoming hardship, loss, and injustice. Eurocentric epistemologies, insisting on the sanctity of the written word and positivist inquiry, are reminded in no uncertain terms (Mamadou Kouyaté, whose spoken words the book translates, interprets, and narrativizes, pulls no punches) that other domains of knowledge, rooted in the verbal art and expressive culture of the Belen Tigi (Master of the Word), are possible. In short, when meditating on the legacy and importance of Soundjata at sixty (1960–2020) and beyond, there is much—in the panegyric spirt of jeliya—to praise. As postcolonial as it is decolonial, as rooted in tradition as it is modern in outlook, Soundjata has stood the test of time to become a contemporary classic. However, this is hardly the end of the story, as this collection of essays attests. Niane’s work continues to inspire interest and invite inquiry. Read together, the authors of the following papers ask: • What kind of “classic” is Soundiata? Is it literature, orature, scholarship, or some combination of these? • How did the text come about? What regional and historical precedents are there for such work? Who were the chief informants and intellectual peers that made Niane’s research and writing possible? • What critical lenses might we apply to the contemporary study of Soundiata? What are the epistemological pitfalls and challenges of presenting “legend” or “myth” as “history,” using a texted language with essential ties to verbal art? • How might the postcolonial drama of D.T. Niane’s own personal and professional life inform our understanding of his scholarship and legacy? In other words, having noted the enduring significance of Niane’s Soundiata, the following essays invite us to pan out and zoom in, assessing the context of the book’s provenance, its intertextuality and interdisciplinarity, the complex field of its analysis and interpretation, and the...

Some Reflexions on Jan Čep’s Short Stories in Exile

This article focuses on the six short stories that the Czech writer Jan Čep wrote during his exile in France, when he fled the new Czechoslovak communist regime after 1948. These texts are as follows: Les Tziganes [The Gypsies], which was written in French and published in the journal Terre humaine in 1952, Tajemství Kláry Bendové [The Secret of Klára Benda], Před zavřenými dveřmi [In Front of the Closed Door], Ostrov Ré [Ré Island], Květnové dni [Days of May], and Tři pocestní [Three Pilgrims]. These short stories are interesting for several reasons. First of all, they present a changing point in Čep’s themes, for they take place during the more recent events – the Second World War and the arrival to power of the communist regime, – and evoke a humanity who has been destroyed. The existential drama of the individual, which had previously been predominant in Čep’s work, is now extended to the entire human community. Fear has separated people from each other, and every genuine personal relation has become impossible. What’s more, language is incapable of bringing together human beings. True communication implies a form of silence, in which God can speak to the heart of man, and where the possibility of communion with the others still exists. At the same time, Čep’s characters have to face this recent history, which obliges them to make a choice, in particular as far as exile is concerned. As a consequence, a new form of anguish appears, and is superimposed on Čep’s original one. It gives rise to a feeling of guilt over those who stayed in Czechoslovakia, especially his mother, but also confronts Čep with the inability to write, since he doesn’t manage to find a publisher in France and can no longer write in Czech. As a “pilgrim on the earth”, he endures his suffering and the suffering of the world united to Christ, in communion with Him. Eventually, these later short stories represent a transition for Čep, and reveal that he accepts, as painful as this decision can be, to abandon fiction and to engage in the genre of essay, above all for Radio Free Europe. He will thus manage to give hope to people who suffer behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia, while expressing his intimate concerns in a very personal way.

Borys Liatoshynsky’s 1910s–1920s Instrumental Chamber Music: Evolution from Salon Style to Symphonic Drama

This paper examines the evolution of the signature traits of Borys Liatoshynsky’s instrumental chamber music during the 1910s and 1920s in the context of the overall evolution of the composer’s expressive means. Also presented is the complex analysis of Liatoshynsky’s creative personality in his early (the 1910s) and modernist (1920s) periods in order to outline the impact of the cultural and historical environment the artist lived in during the late 1910s, as well as the influence of the troubled sociocultural situation of the time on his imagery. It was found that in the 1910s Liatoshynsky turned to modifying expressive means of late Romanticism; however, during the 1920s the palette of his instrumental chamber music shifted to symphonic experiments. For Liatoshynsky, instrumental chamber music becomes a testing ground for his creed as a symphonic composer with the respective imagery and existential drama behind his design

Latency in Lebanon, or bringing things (back) to life: A Perfect Day (Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, 2005)

Many Lebanese films and documentaries of the last few decades have focused on the hidden legacies of the civil war (1975–1991) that remain unprocessed in public, and often private, life. Unsurprisingly, these works have often been discussed by critics through the lens of traumatic cultural memory. In the first part of this article I argue that this model is productive yet insufficient. I suggest, instead, a methodological approach which acknowledges the intersections between trauma and other processes underpinning everyday life in the city. In the second part of the article I apply this approach to the film A Perfect Day (Hadjithomas and Joreige, 2005). Using the directors’ own concept of latency, I analyse the affective modes of touch, breath and the hidden life of objects to show how the performative existential drama that unfolds in the film opens out onto processes that go beyond the haunting legacies of violence from the civil war and includes a vision of singularity and infinite possibility that relates back to the birth of cinema itself.

O Complexo Problema do Cânone Lírico de Camões: Algumas Perspetivas Teóricas

The lyrical work of Camoes, as a repository of an implicit poetic theory, represents a particular case in Portuguese literary production. Due to the comprehensiveness with which the poet, at the individual and collective level, gave expression to some of the characteristics that define the existential drama of the Portuguese man, and also due to the dimension of the civic pedagogy that he tried to print in it, his work is assumed as a pillar of Portuguese culture in the last four centuries. However, a complex problem emerges when trying to delimit the of the lyric, that is, the set of works that can effectively be attributed to it, which is due to a phenomenon of reception based on erroneous sources and influenced by multiple agents. Through the study of the role played by 16th century documents in the constitution of the lyrical canon of the poet, the process of constitution of the corpus in subsequent centuries was explained, confirming the historical-literary complexity of this process.

ABOUT DRAMATURGICAL PRINCIPLES OF D. N. MAMIN-SIBIRYAK: COMEDY “THE OWNERS OF GOLD MINES”

The article presents the experience of referring to the little-studied part of the creative heritage of Mamin-Sibiryak — his first dramatic work, the play “The Owners of Gold Mines”. The creative history of this work is traced, a comparative analysis of the printed magazine version of the play and the later edition, which remained in the white manuscript, is carried out. The author made the order of the changes in the genre nominations of the play by himself (from comedy to drama and everyday chronicle and, vice versa, to comedy). The logic of significant adjustment of the system of characters and the nature of the dramatic conflict, as well as the change in the leading axiological attitudes of the author-playwright's consciousness, is revealed. As a fundamental feature of the plot-compositional construction of the play “The Owners of Gold Mines”, Mamin's synthesis of novel and dramatic forms was recognized, which was most clearly manifested in his orientation towards the theatrical tradition of the “plays of life” of A. N. Ostrovsky, on panoramic illumination of the “dark kingdom” gold miners. In the course of the analysis of the dramatic development of the action, it is shown how the comedy of social and everyday situations organically flows into a real family-psychological tragedy of passionate obsession and painful conscience, complicated by individual melodramatic elements. The emphasis in the spiritual and moral issues of the play on the plot of sin and repentance, of the popular Christian view of human nature makes the work in question related to the folk parable drama of L. N. Tolstoy “The Power of Darkness”. In the conclusion, it is suggested that in the first play, Mamin the playwright is already coming close to the stage discoveries of the existential psychological drama (comedy) of A. P. Chekhov, which will be even more tangibly manifested in the next dramatic work of the Ural writer — the comedy “Little Truth”.

The Summer Dream and the Collective Notion of Identity in Ed Bullins’s In the Wine Time

Abstract This article argues that Ed Bullins’s play In the Wine Time (1968) presents collective existential black consciousness. The play showcases a collective struggle against the oppressive reality through depicting a realistic image of the depressing life of the blacks in the black ghetto. This stems from the idea that Black existential philosophy and Black existential drama present a collective notion of existence rather than the individualistic notion of existence presented by traditional, European existentialism. Bullins builds this notion among his characters throughout the scenes of the play. To this end, the play characterizes a dialogue between the individualistic level of existence and the collective one through calling on for improving the oppressive reality through choice and opportunity. The collective struggle the play shows throughout the performance intends to free the black individual, as freeing the black individual is the first step toward achieving the collective freedom. Keywords: collective consciousness, black drama, black existentialism, Ed Bullins, In the Wine Time

Ubi caritas et amor. Une lecture comparée du Baiser au lépreux et de O Veleiro de Cristal

Abstract. Ubi caritas et amor. A Comparatist Reading of Le Baiser au lépreux and O Veleiro de Cristal. Le Baiser au lépreux (The Kiss to the Leper), by François Mauriac, and O Veleiro de Cristal (The Crystal Sailboat), by José Mauro de Vasconcelos, are a priori aimed at two different audiences. Le Baiser au lépreux is indeed generally considered to be Mauriac’s first important book, whereas O Veleiro de Cristal belongs to “children’s literature”, like O Meu Pé de Laranja Lima (in English “My Sweet Orange Tree”), by the same author, which was very successful in Brazil but also in France. However, the two stories share deep similarities, so we can draw parallels between them. As far as the narrative level is concerned, both of the books tell the story of a human being who suffers because of his physical appearance; Jean Péloueyre in Le Baiser au lépreux and Eduardo in O Veleiro de Cristal are rejected by their close relatives and hide from other people. They try to escape from their painful experience, thanks to the religion in the case of Jean Péloueyre, even if the latter gives rise to an existential drama, and thanks to the imagination in the case of Eduardo, who discovers in the house where his aunt Anna has led him animals who are able to talk. In both stories, eventually, the theme of charity is fundamental: in Mauriac’s novel, Noémi marries Jean and ends up loving him with a love based on charity and that can be defined as agapè, while in O Veleiro de Cristal Anna renounces all vanity to devote herself to her nephew, her charity echoing the one of the animals who live in the Crystal Sailboat.

Machado de Assis em minissérie

Particularidades estéticas do romance Dom Casmurro e da minissérie Capitu revelam a capacidade de discursos literário e audiovisual de representar singularidades da vida social brasileira do passado, bem como apontam problemas existenciais do representante de classe que conduz o enredo, provocando reflexões no presente. O tratamento oferecido à luta de classes pela narrativa de Machado de Assis e pela transcriação, assim como o modo através do qual o drama existencial é exposto, promovem um tipo de recepção entre leitores/espectadores capazes de rever o passado histórico em tempos que pedem tal revisão, ainda que a série televisiva aposte forçosamente no anticonvencional das imagens bem tratadas e da narrativa não linear. Machado apresentou a tensão entre representação e verdade (bem como entre produção de emoção e de reflexão) com a transfiguração do pathos de tragédia e a mobilização da figura patriarcal para o viés melodramático. Embora acrescidas de uma ironia orquestrada pelos elementos cênicos na versão audiovisual, tais soluções machadianas tenderiam a perder a força de desmascaramento dos sujeitos sociais, contudo a intensificação do melodrama pode evidenciar o que Machado disfarçou com intenções narrativas menos óbvias.

ЧЕЛОВЕК В ЭПОХУ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ: ЦИФРОВОЙ МИР В ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОМ ОСМЫСЛЕНИИ Х. КАМПОСА ГАРСИИ

The article conceptualizes the problem of the place and the role of technology in the life of humanity and its significance in today’s society. The analysis is based on the plays written in the 2000’s by Jesus Campos Garcia, one of the most beloved modern Spanish playwrights. Campos Garcia’s theatre is always closely linked to relevant socio-cultural problems and represents the playwright’s comprehensive introspection towards how specific the influence of modern technology – primarily digital technology – on modern life is; his self-consciousness. An exemplary work in this respect is his existential drama “Naufragar en Internet” (1999) followed by Campos Garcia’s essay “La tecnología como metáfora” (2004), in which, early into the era of active computerization he addresses the questions of the correlation between the real and the virtual; the influence of technology on everyday life and the opening up of possibilities; the existential fears and aspirations of humanity – the fear of non-existence, thirst for immortality, etc. – reflected in modern technology. The present topic is further developed in the playwright’s later works (“d.juan@simetrico.es” 2008; “...y la casa crecía”, 2016).

Antes de vestir a casaca, é preciso vestir as calças: breve monólogo entre Manoel Dias e Domício da Gama

This essay aims to rediscuss the work of Domicio da Gama, nowadays almost unknown in the context of 19th century Brazilian literature. We take here into account a short story from his early years, «As calças do Manoel Dias», published in 1886. The existential drama of its protagonist, an unlucky Portuguese salesman, is compared to Domicio da Gama’s irregular trajectory in Brazilian literature. Annex to the essay, the transcript of the short story stems from a thorough comparison of its four versions.

Script Drama Analysis II

This paper completes the original Script Drama Analysis article (Karpman, 1968) that first introduced the Drama Triangle, Role Diagram, and Location Diagram into TA script literature. As did the previous article, this script theory paper also creates ‘as many new ideas as possible’ to continue Berne's legacy of invention by brainstorming as he taught his followers in his weekly Tuesday night seminars ‘Think Tank’ in San Francisco in the 1960s. (Karpman, 2014). New game and script theory are woven into novel combinations, to open doors and inspire additional new script theory. Included are: a) 15 new scripting drama triangles including the Palimpsest, Redecision, Transference, Freudian, Existential, Miniscript, Biodynamic, and Darwinian Drama Triangles; b) A family games analysis including the child's Redecision Triangle, the Script Game, Script Scene, Script Scene Imago and Dysfunctional Family Analysis; c) Two new script formulae for the Script Game Payoff; d) Three new internal and external Script Energy Drive Systems; e) Three new script reinforcement systems: Script Formula G, Script Formula P3. and a Miniscript Drama Triangle; f) A new three-cornered Darwinian instinct; g) Six new Existential Continuums; and h) Four combination three level script teaching diagrams.

Inocentul Alienat Și DepăȘirea Limitelor (Auto)Impuse

Abstract The starting point of my work is represented by three of Lucian Blaga’s plays: Daria, Ivanca and Înviere. We tried to show that the characters of these plays represent pieces of individuality and also these characters will be free from their existential drama only if they will become a mirror for the each other, only if they will be interconnected and if these characters will be able to transfer a part of their identity to another individual.

Philosophy of War and Peace: Anthropocentric Dichotomy of Love/Humanity as Motivation of Heroism (Based on “Letters to a German Friend” by Albert Camus)

The article considers the humanistic anthropocentric position of the French writer and philosopher A. Camus in his “Letters to a German Friend” (1943–1944). During the World War II the writer experienced a real existential drama of conscience caused by situation in the occupied France. The country experienced horror and humiliation of temporary occupation and managed to turn its defeat into victory. Fascism in the eyes of the prominent humanist writer and philosopher of France is revealed in the context of the philosophy of war/peace. This context is specified by a number of statements, such as love/hate, violence/nonviolence, etc. ‘Disturbed Conscience’ of A. Camus, in spite of patriotic reasons, sought intercourse between different pairs of opposition: strength/weakness, heroism/cowardice, etc. The oppositions we/you, our/your appeal to such concepts as the price of sacrifice, the price of loss, the price of victory.
 The monological epistolary genre allows showing the psychological and moral reality of the war, with possible shifts in time and appeal to the Other. A. Camus strengthens the existential problem, the core of which is the opposition “Me – Other” (according to M. Buber and E. Levinas) and “Me like the Other» (P. Ricker). In fact, he initiates a new ontological and linguistic reality embedded in the paradigm of a new/other discourse of war. The binary oppositions similar/unrelated, friend/foe, one’s own/alien, hero/traitor, winner/ defeated are being demounted in the field of psychology of violence reflected by the author within the psychology of nonviolence. At the same time, the basic oppositional pair patriot/collaborator is integrated into a complex system of psychological controversies being the ground of Camus’ psychology of nonviolence. The writer expands a number of oppositional concepts adding the dichotomy of ‘two Europes’. He anthropologizes the considered problems to the highest extent, placing a man with the whole complex of human values in the center of his ‘arguments of conscience’.

MORTA POR DENTRO: SUBJETIVIDADE E ALEGORIA EM THE ADDICTION

The Addiction (Os Viciosos, 1994), realizado por Abel Ferrara, é uma obra cinematográfica que questiona a fronteira entre modos indiretos e diretos de representação. A alegoria como modo indireto de representação surge neste filme através de uma ligação indissociável a um modo direto, quase cru, de representação do drama existencial da protagonista. Ela chamase Kathleen e é uma doutoranda em filosofia na Universidade de Nova Iorque. A análise que este artigo desenvolve incide, primeiro, na forma como Kathleen se vai definindo face ao horror do mal e, depois, no caminho moral que ela percorre até ao fim do filme. A conclusão desta leitura inclui o enquadramento de The Addiction na filmografia de Ferrara, sem o qual este filme não pode ser apreciado em toda a sua riqueza artística.