Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Pelaez, Sol I.

Committee Member

Arroyo, Silvia

Committee Member

Moser, Keith A.

Committee Member

Davisson, Brian M.

Date of Degree

8-9-2019

Original embargo terms

Worldwide

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Foreign Language

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to explore how Luigi Pirandello’s Enrico IV (1922) and Miguel de Unamuno’s El hermano Juan o el mundo es teatro (1929) utilize metatheatrical strategies to create plays that constantly question the juxtaposition, and yet the fluidity, of reality and fiction. Through a similar existential search, which is guided by a Sartrean psychoanalytic approach, the protagonists endure a transformation that reveals contrasting results: Enrico remains entrapped in his theatrical portrayal of Henry IV. Conversely, Don Juan frees himself from societal restraints that had portrayed him as a trickster through centuries of literary tradition. In these plays, authority becomes an ever-shifting device that persistently moves from the author, to the characters, and finally to the audience, affecting their own freedom, intended in the Sartrean sense, and being.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/14556

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