Maybe to blot out the voice : Vocaliser l’horreur dans quelques pièces de Pinter, Churchill et Crimp

Horror cannot exist but openly displayed. It thus freezes our mental abilities and stops any possibility of objectifying, through language, the unbearable pains it displays. Being the medium of rational language, the voice becomes powerless in the face of a dumbfounding horror show. At the same time...

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Main Author: Laetitia Pasquet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2013-06-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/2943
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author Laetitia Pasquet
author_facet Laetitia Pasquet
author_sort Laetitia Pasquet
collection DOAJ
description Horror cannot exist but openly displayed. It thus freezes our mental abilities and stops any possibility of objectifying, through language, the unbearable pains it displays. Being the medium of rational language, the voice becomes powerless in the face of a dumbfounding horror show. At the same time, the voice is also part and parcel of the perpetrator’s, as can be testified by the part it plays in the interrogation and torture process. Through plays like One for the Road, Far Away or Fewer Emergencies, contemporary English drama sets a paradoxical mission to the voice: it both shows how extreme pain is caused and bears witness to sheer horror in which humanity is disfigured and language powerless. What emerges from this paradox is an ethics of voicing that has to overcome the failure of the logos in order to restore the victims’ voices and invent vocal and verbal strategies to be able to deal with extreme horror, thus restoring the sense of humanity shattered by horror.
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spelling doaj-art-fbdcbbf3347c49699acae8a4e0e4af9d2025-01-30T13:46:47ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022013-06-011610.4000/sillagescritiques.2943Maybe to blot out the voice : Vocaliser l’horreur dans quelques pièces de Pinter, Churchill et CrimpLaetitia PasquetHorror cannot exist but openly displayed. It thus freezes our mental abilities and stops any possibility of objectifying, through language, the unbearable pains it displays. Being the medium of rational language, the voice becomes powerless in the face of a dumbfounding horror show. At the same time, the voice is also part and parcel of the perpetrator’s, as can be testified by the part it plays in the interrogation and torture process. Through plays like One for the Road, Far Away or Fewer Emergencies, contemporary English drama sets a paradoxical mission to the voice: it both shows how extreme pain is caused and bears witness to sheer horror in which humanity is disfigured and language powerless. What emerges from this paradox is an ethics of voicing that has to overcome the failure of the logos in order to restore the victims’ voices and invent vocal and verbal strategies to be able to deal with extreme horror, thus restoring the sense of humanity shattered by horror.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/2943Martin CrimpCaryl Churchillemotionbodyhorrortorture
spellingShingle Laetitia Pasquet
Maybe to blot out the voice : Vocaliser l’horreur dans quelques pièces de Pinter, Churchill et Crimp
Sillages Critiques
Martin Crimp
Caryl Churchill
emotion
body
horror
torture
title Maybe to blot out the voice : Vocaliser l’horreur dans quelques pièces de Pinter, Churchill et Crimp
title_full Maybe to blot out the voice : Vocaliser l’horreur dans quelques pièces de Pinter, Churchill et Crimp
title_fullStr Maybe to blot out the voice : Vocaliser l’horreur dans quelques pièces de Pinter, Churchill et Crimp
title_full_unstemmed Maybe to blot out the voice : Vocaliser l’horreur dans quelques pièces de Pinter, Churchill et Crimp
title_short Maybe to blot out the voice : Vocaliser l’horreur dans quelques pièces de Pinter, Churchill et Crimp
title_sort maybe to blot out the voice vocaliser l horreur dans quelques pieces de pinter churchill et crimp
topic Martin Crimp
Caryl Churchill
emotion
body
horror
torture
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/2943
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