The Ambivalence of a Masterpiece: A Lost Letter by I.L. Caragiale

Authors

  • Doina Modola Department of Musical Performing Arts, "Gheorghe Dima" Music Academy, Cluj-Napoca

Abstract

A Lost Letter by I.L. Caragiale, a landmark in the history of Romanian theatre, has enjoyed throughout time numerous critical interpretations, without losing
its dramatic potential. We intend to study the comic mechanism through a variety of dramatic strategies: the diversity of the scenes, the circular actions,
the baffling succession of situations, starting with the loss of the compromising love letter. This play features the actors of a political electoral farce overflowing with a vaudeville-like comic, that in conjunction with parody, is targeting the ideological clichés and verbal stereotypes. A logically inconceivable humour that borders the absurd. The purpose of this kind of humour, unleashed during comical situations, is not hiding the immorality, the demagogy of a socio-political reality put under the critical scope of the author. The joyful, bitter or cruel laughter are being in a continuous competition here. The humour is thus the element that subverts the values of political commitment.

Author Biography

Doina Modola, Department of Musical Performing Arts, "Gheorghe Dima" Music Academy, Cluj-Napoca

Doina Modola is a Romanian literary and theatre critic. She published several books, such as: Dramaturgia românească între 1900-1918 (1983), Actori pe scena lumii (1990), Lucian Blaga și teatrul. Insurgentul (1999), Chipurile Traviatei. Reprezentația lirică (2002), Riscurile avangardei (2003). She is member of the Writers’ Union of Romania. In 2007, she was awarded the UNITER Prize for the entire activity.

Published

2021-02-02

How to Cite

Modola, D. (2021). The Ambivalence of a Masterpiece: A Lost Letter by I.L. Caragiale. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai - Dramatica, 65(2), 97–122. Retrieved from https://dramatica.ro/index.php/j/article/view/54