The Dream Motif in the Plays ‘As We Were’ and ‘Gatherings’ by Arthur Adamov

Abstract

The article analyzes the dream motif in works by French writer Arthur Adamov. The research material is the plays As We Were (Comme nous avons été) and Gatherings (Les Retrouvailles), traditionally called ‘dream plays’ and marking a transitional phase in Adamov’s writings. The article describes the genesis of the dream motif: in particular, Adamov was influenced by studies in the field of art (surrealism; The Dream Play by J. A. Strindberg) and psychological science (S. Freud, K. G. Jung). The place of the dream motif is defined in Adamov’s poetics as central, the motif itself – as one of the main instruments for creating a special ‘other-reality’ space. Adamov’s artistic world is characterized by the following features: fragility of borderlines (between dream and reality, between friendly and enemy forces etc.); the absence of obvious self-identification of the hero, who is incapable of action; fragmentary architectonics; the inevitable realization of deepest fears. The autobiographical nature of Adamov’s texts leads to a conclusion that it is important for the writer to establish connections between the individual and the universal, the subjective and the objective, the unconscious and the consciousness. Two aspects are considered: Adamov’s poetics in creating ‘dream plays’ and their philosophical and historical context. The psychoanalytic method makes it possible to interpret Adamov’s ‘other-reality’ territory as the territory of the human unconscious. The dream motif in Adamov’s worldview is linked to the guilt motif. In ‘dream plays’, the theme of the impossibility of becoming adult escalates to the existential problem of human powerlessness toward life. The dream in Adamov’s philosophical system turns out to be a supporting idea in rethinking the problem of the human existence borderlines.