So is This the End?: The Unfinishability of Quixotic Play
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2015
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Bi-College (Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges). Comparative Literature Program
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Thesis
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The Barbara Riley Levin Prize
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
Published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, Don Quijote is perhaps one of the most heavily studied, reviewed, and interpreted novels of all time. This thesis attempts a unique study, however, by interpreting the novel through a modern lens of performance theory. The study retroactively applies the theories of Richard Schechner, one of the forefathers of performance theory, onto the seventeenth century novel by arguing that certain representations of madness by characters other than Don Quijote can be understood as performances. Using Schechner’s theories, this paper creates a clear distinction between Don Quijote’s madness and that of the other “sane” characters based upon the social function of performance, which acts as a medium to enact socially forbidden behavior. The paper then argues that not only do the various characters perform madness, but that this performance is a type of dark play because of its inherent danger in destabilizing the boundary between sanity and madness. Tracing the progression of this dark play throughout the novel, the paper then posits a total obliteration of any distinction between play and reality, causing the play to be “unfinishable,” in an act of what I term quixotic play. The paper then turns to the 2002 film Lost in La Mancha directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe as an example and embodiment of quixotic play, both in terms of the play enacted within the film and as part of a larger version of quixotic play which is the legacy of the seventeenth century novel. The comparative analysis concludes by suggesting that the original narrative, as an example of quixotic play itself, is unfinishable by its very existence, that it can never end and will instead remain perpetually in a state of play.