Un Christophe ignoré des Césairiens

Abstract

After the triumph of King Christophe in Salzburg in 1964, Europa Studio, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, co-produced with Austrian television a TV show of Jean-Marie Serreau’s production, directed by Ottokar Runze and aired on 20 January 1965. This historical moment of Francophone theatre and Césaire’s work, with the exceptional presence of Mathilde Beauvoir, is ignored by critics until today. Why? This is the first question we addressed going back to the genesis of this TV production. In this way, we also question his autoriality (authors and right holders), and then show how this theatrical genetics makes it possible to better read the texts, to understand their passage from an indigenous semiotic to an exogenous one – a key question for Francophone studies.

Keywords

• Aimé Césaire. Europa Studio. Jean-Marie Serreau. Mathilde Beauvoir. Ottokar Runze. Roger Blin. Roi Christophe/King Christophe. Theatrical genetics