Molière’s comedies have most often been examined as character comedies where comedy is based on the actions produced by the character traits of central characters. French court ballet, on the other hand, has been studied both as a solemn tool of monarchical propaganda and as entertainment that was an integral part of court life where various grotesque, burlesque and caricature-like characters could amuse the audience.
Comédies-ballets use the means of comedy characteristics of both spoken comedy and court ballet, but unlike previous research, Minna Hagman's doctoral thesis aims to answer the question what kind of specific comicality is created when the entrances of dancing characters, the interludes containing ballets, and the scenes of spoken comedy are juxtaposed. The study uses concepts from Giorgio Agamben’s philosophy on the relationship between power and humanity to show the ways in which ballet and comedy are combined in comédies-ballets and the kind of comicality that these combinations produce.
In her research, Hagman shows that the essence of comicality in comédies-ballets lies in the significance of ‘beautiful dance’ that was used in both court ballets and balls during the reign of Louis XIV. At that time, dancing skills were an essential part of the aristocratic way of life and were considered as a means of expressing humanity in its noblest form. Presenting dancing skills as comical was therefore out of the question, at least if the dancer was a member of the aristocracy. Instead, characters from the lower classes could be ridiculed by showing them attempting to perform a ‘noble dance’.
“In the comédies-ballets, it is the ballets that represent the power of the king, and comedy arises, for example, from how the characters in the comedy relate to the dance and the dancing characters, or from how the ballets are connected or disconnected from the actions of the comedy,” Hagman notes.
Based on her research, Hagman argues that the comicality characteristic of comédies-ballets arises from clashes between the comedy that pokes fun at the customs of the time and the ballet that is part of the courtiers’ lifestyle. These clashes tend to break the illusion of reality created by the performance. They direct the audience’s attention to the means of performance and how the challenge of combining ballet and comedy has been solved, or how solving it proves to be impossible.
Public defence on Thursday 23 October
MA Minna Hagman’s doctoral dissertation in the field of literary studies titled Impossibility, Impotentiality, Inoperativity: The comicality of juxtaposing ballet and comedy in Molière’s comédies-ballets interpreted through Giorgio Agamben’s philosophy will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Tampere University. The Opponent will by Professor Julia Prest from the University of St Andrews. Professor Sari Kivistö from the Faculty of Social Sciences will act as the Custos.