Intermedial Theatricality: Verbal-Visual Irony in Stoppard's After Magritte

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper traces and identifies intermedial theatricality in Stoppard's early play After Magritte (1970), showing how this is used to illustrate themes such as the discrepancy between appearance and reality, or the notion that reality can be more mysterious than fiction, by ironically reworking and re-playing the conventions of precursor visual texts. As the pun in the play's title suggests, After Magritte challenges the way we see what we see and explores the way art defines reality. Using the illusion of Magrittean visual qualities on stage, via the crucial opening and closing tableaus, Stoppard comically situates the reader/audience in the in-between space of the absurd and the rational, and of the dark and the light, while raising questions about the logic of normality and the errors of interpretation. The farcical yet serious complexity of perceptions portrayed in After Magritte is characteristic of Stoppard's work, along with the verbal wit and logical congruity, marking this play as fully deserving its place in the appreciation of these displays of comic theatricality.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Stoppard and Intermediality/Intertextuality
• 3. An Impressionist Stage: Appearance and Reality
• 4. Reality is Stranger Than Fiction: After Magritte
• 5. Conclusion
• Works Cited