Repetition as Zoom Effect. A Mechanism of Short Writing Played at the Level of Words

Authors

  • Alexandre Koutchevsky

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13136/sjtds.v1i2.38

Abstract

The proliferation of short theatrical forms in France has never stopped growing, especially since the 1980s. This strong presence of short texts in French theatrical panorama is not simply due to the amelioration of writing, production, and circulation conditions, but is a symptom of a profound evolution of contemporary dramatic writings. For many of these authors, brevity offers a range of exhilarating tools which allow for the invention of new dramaturgical forms. If one admits that brevity is in the first place a question of style rather than of format, what is especially at stake for the authors of short forms is to achieve a maximum degree of signification with a minimum amount of words. It is therefore necessary to aim at economizing the means while, at the same time, attaining the highest efficacy (at the level of sense, of dramatic, poetic, narrative power, etc.). The zoom process, which aims at a slow-motion unfolding of sense to our consciousness, inscribes itself into a dimension of maximum profitability and parsimony. Accordingly, this article analyses the repetition of the word “fissures” [“cracks”] employed as zoom effect in Roland Fichet’s short piece Fissures (1998).

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Published

2015-12-29

Issue

Section

Monographic Section