The Performance of Identity in Wajdi Mouawad's "Incendies"

• Author / Creator

  Renault, Nicole

• This thesis is an analysis of Wajdi Mouawad’s Incendies, the second play in his tetralogy Le Sang des promesses. It is the stories of multiple journeys of self-discovery taken by characters seeking to better understand their own history and present identity as it exists within a complex and continually shifting socio-political web. Through the lenses of Postcolonial and Trauma theory, I endeavor to do a close reading of the play script as well as semiotic investigation of Mouawad’s original staging of the production in comparison with Richard Rose’s mise en scène of the play in English, Scorched. I will demonstrate in this thesis that the techniques suggested by Postcolonial and Trauma theorists for the re-establishment of identity in the face of loss are exemplified in Incendies, both in the fictional world of the play and its reception by an audience.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Wajdi Mouawad

• Graduation date

  Fall 2009

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3QC7T

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.