Wit and Wisdom in Durrenmatt's Names
1970; University of Wisconsin Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/1207795
ISSN1548-9949
Autores ResumoFriedrich Diirrenmatt has been celebrated for the ingenuity of his plots; he is by common consent Dichter der Einfille.' Equally ingenious is the catalogue of names, principally for the dramatis personae, which he has devised for his plays. names run the gamut in inventiveness: types (der Vater, der Polizist); word-play names, either evoking laughter (Gnadenbrot Suppe, Gasten Schmalz) or contributing to the grotesque atmosphere (Bockelson, Knipperdollinck); topical and literary allusions (McArthur, Korbes); and symbolic names (Traps, Anastasia). The variety manifest in Diirrenmatt's delight in evocative names2 points, it would seem, to his basic concept of the function of the theater and the characters in a play. Although he has protested that he means to put living beings on the stage (I describe people, not marionettes),3 he concerns himself in his plays primarily with ideas. Diirrenmatt critics also have stressed the unmistakably symbolic content in his characters: personified principles, not living beings encounter each other here.4 Basically, the label Diirrenmatt has chosen for his plays-tragicomedy-makes clear
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