scenes from an endless childhood: the tragic feeling in incêndios

Authors

  • sandra mara corazza Universidade Federal do Rio Grand do Sul
  • deniz alcione nicolay Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2016.23352

Keywords:

Personagem. Tempo. Narrativa.

Abstract

The present paper discusses the critical universe of the theatre play Incêndios, by Wadji Mouawad, taking the actions of the main character, Nawal, as both the starting point and the point of arrival of the narrative. It punctuates the writing and memory mechanisms as triggers for thought and plot among the elements of the play. In this regard, it attains to a conceptual comprehension of the notion of time, seeking out its dimensions in the course of the drama. It encounters in Sophocles' Filoctetes a philosophical and instrumental proximity. For this reason, Incêndios and the classical work are parallel. It also raises critic social themes over and above the aesthetic and scenographic core, expanding the analysis to questions that involve contemporaneous socio-demographic problems. Finally, it thematizes notions of childhood through problematizing the “childishness” trope most clearly displayed in the work Endless Childhood (CORAZZA, 2000). It uses a conceptual analysis of this device to make considerations about two moments of childhood that are presented in the play. In a first moment, it discusses the origins of Nawal’s feelings and, in a second, the atonement of she performs in resolution of these feelings, in a quintessential evocation of the tragic condition.

Author Biographies

sandra mara corazza, Universidade Federal do Rio Grand do Sul

Doutora em Educação pela UFRGS. Departamento de Ensino e Currículo.

deniz alcione nicolay, Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul

Doutor em Educação pela UFRGS. Professor adjunto da área de Fundamentos da Educação.

Published

2016-06-28

How to Cite

corazza, sandra mara, & nicolay, deniz alcione. (2016). scenes from an endless childhood: the tragic feeling in incêndios. Childhood & Philosophy, 12(23), 87–109. https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2016.23352