Abstrakt: | The article analyses the writings by Koltès, an important playwright on the French scene of
the 1980s. The main issue focuses on the unique fusion of personal existential experience (numerous
travels to African countries, North and South America, illness, childhood experiences, exceptional sensitivity) with his artistic work, as well as the problem of the other human, one’s perception
of the Other, quest for him/her, desire, fear of the Other, and inability to communicate with
the Other. Encounter with the Other is concomitant with experiencing solitude, desire, love, but
also aggression and destruction. Germane to the way of expressing them is space and time. The
space, especially the one which is physically experienced by the author himself, and which served
him as his prime source of inspiration, plays an important role in rendering the Other. At the same
time the Other is identified with the fascinating black man (Alboury from the play entitled Black
Battles with Dogs/ Combat de nègre et des chiens, Abad from Quay West/ Quai ouest). Another time he
bears resemblance to the fierce Other, who arouses fear, and makes others run away from him
(Dealer from In the Solitude of Cotton Fields/ Dans la solitude des champs de coton). And yet another
time the Other is like a merely discernible silhouette fading somewhere over the corner of an abandoned
street; this is the person we want and need; however, much unreal as this person is, we are
doubtful of who the one in question really is. This might be a forlorn part of ourselves (The Night
Just Before the Forests/ La nuit juste avant les forêts). Different interpretations of the Other allow for
J. Lacan’s theory, since there are many points of intersection which bring it close to what emerges
in dramas by Kotlès. |