Publication details
Die Entwertung der Sprache in den Stücken von Václav Havel aus den 60er Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts
| Title in English | The Devaluation of Language in the Plays of Václav Havel in the 1960s |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The chapter is devoted to the depiction of the devaluation of language in Václav Havel's dramatic works of the 1960s. It consists primarily in presenting absurd situations that mirror the fundamental discrepancy between reality and its verbalised form. The procedures of absurdist dramatics enabled the author to build a model of a world in which the skilful manipulation of words dominates over individuality and moral criteria, as the communicative function of language is destroyed and speech is transformed into a flow of phrases and platitudes. Although the characters' speeches take the formal form of logical arguments, their informational and factual value is negligible, as they become part of a social mechanism in which contentlessness is paradoxically a guarantee of success. |