The article contains an analysis of the views of the French writer Arthur Adamov (1908—1970) on the language problem, reflected in his autobiographical book “The Confession” (“L’Aveu”, 1946). An attempt is made to determine the place and meaning of Adamov’s linguistic reflection both in the ideological plot of his book and in the aesthetic paradigm of the modernist era. “The decline of language” is considered by Adamov as a result of the degradation and desacralization of culture, a sign of the loss of essential connections and value orienting points. Modern language is, according to Adamov, a living organism, suffering from duality and frailty, devoid of universality and relief. However, a human being does not know other means of self-expression that could replace language, and, doomed to dumbness, feels an urgent need for its comprehensive rethinking and renewal. Proceeding from this need, Adamov turns to etymology, the ancient science of the original meaning of words, and develops a number of ideological motives that reveal the connection between the language problem and ontological and ethical principles. These are the motives of existential loneliness and its overcoming, extrapersonal guilt (“the fault of all men everywhere and forever”) and a return to the mythological roots of culture. First outlined in “The Confession”, they soon take on a full-fledged sound in Adamov’s drama, which defined the new type of Western European theater that went down in the history of the twentieth century under the name of “the theater of the absurd”.
Reference to article:
Osmanova K. P. The problem of the language crisis in “The confession” by Arthur Adamov // Ivanovo State University Bulletin. Series «The Humanities». 2021. No.4. P. 38–45.