The concept of tragic in Nelson Rodrigues' plays

Author(s)

Elen de Medeiros

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2010-06-18

Examining board members

Vilma Sant'Anna Arêas; Adriano de Paula Rabelo; Claudia de Arruda Campos; Maria Silvia Betti; Silvia Fernandes da Silva Telesi

• Advisor: Vilma Sant'Anna Arêas

Abstract

Nelson Rodrigues' plays have a profound relation with a certain notion of tragic, because of the pessimistic perspective with which life is treated, as much as the downfall ending that his characters present. This thesis' main aim is to investigate the sense of tragic in this playwriting. For that purpose, I used some philosophical concepts of tragic, connecting them with the tragedies' form (modern or classical) employed by the author, in different meanings of the genre. I also investigated comic and melodramatic aspects and how this elements help to create the tragic meanings. From all 17 plays written by Nelson Rodrigues in 40 years of work I chose five to analyze here: Family Album (1945), Dark Angel (1946), Drowning Mistress (1847), The deceased woman (1953) and Kiss on the asphalt (1961), because I understand that in this plays is represented a great part of the elements used by the author to create the tragic sense, build on a tragic, comic or melodramatic form, each with its genre features. I observed, with the analyses, that the play's forms become more complex with the inversion and combination of the functions of each gender, proving the permeability of this playwriting (AU)