La République Démocratique du Congo: dramaturgies du conflit (idées et formes)

Abstract

This article, which focuses on selected plays by contemporary Congolese playwrights, has two objectives: the first of which is to illustrate how theatre production in the DRC in contemporary times has been devoted to highlighting various social and political conflicts within the society. The paper’s second objective is to examine the aesthetic and technical aspects of the plays under study, such as the use of allegory, metaphors, verbal invention, proverbs, enunciative heterogeneity, voice orchestration, and theatricality encoded in stage  directions (didascalia). Through its critical analysis of dramaturgy and style, the paper reveals the manner in which the authors display a  heightened sense of awareness about conflicts within their society by employing an agonistic mode in their plot construction. The paper also highlights how the plays have contributed greatly to the development of writing for performance in Africa in general, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo in particular.

Keywords: Congo theatre, conflict, diegesis, discursive strategies, esthetical methods.