Ubu the King and textual polymorphism

Abstract

Ubu the King, a theatrical excess about a grotesquely extroverted, childish, gigantic and gluttonous figure, fundamentally amoral, is a literary work through which the author realizes his critical position in performative art, a fabulous utopian theatrical-textual staging. The idea of utopia is located above all at the level of linguistic expression which Jarry uses to articulate the transhistorical sense of political power and human nature. The poetics of Jarry‘s theater is a synthesis of many linguistic layers that combine into a unique invention. It is a constant play with linguistic genres, from aestheticized literary French, with a strong poetic touch, to the most profane babbling; from children‘s language to the rigorous military terminology; from fine irony to the transparent literalism of the theological style; from classical Latin to the relaxed speech of the street.