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The Impact of Noh on Paul Claudel's Style of Playwriting

1983; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 35; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3206702

1086-332X

John K. Gillespie,

French Historical and Cultural Studies

During his tenure as the French ambassador to Japan, from 1921 to 1927, Paul Claudel saw at least thirteen performances of Noh plays, became acquainted with several figures of the Noh stage, and read the excellent scholarship and many of the fine translations (as well as transliterations) of Michel Revon, Noel Peri, Arthur Waley, and Gaston Renondeau.1 His journal and essays in this period contain frequent, perceptive reference to Noh. And many of his plays composed after 1921 reveal a profound impact arising from three aspects of the Noh: the peculiar use of dream, the figure of the shite, and the retrospective dimension.