الجنوب

by Julien Green, جوليان جرين, عبد الفتاح الديدي (ترجمة)

316pages. 21x14x2cm. Broché.

Genres: Plays

211 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Julien Green was an American writer, who authored several novels, including Léviathan and Each in His Own Darkness. He wrote primarily in French.

Reviews

[Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

مسرحية تتحدث عن العبودية في القرن التاسع عشر، وتتناول موضوع الحرب الأهلية الأمريكية في ذلك الوقت بين الشمال والجنوب. وهناك ايضًا قصة حب في كل ذلك وهي اشبه ما يكون بقصة حب ارستقراطية من العصور القديمة. مسرحية رائعة، وتستحق القراءة حتمًا.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, extremely compelling. I tried to read a novel by Green last year but didn't get far before shelving it for something else. I can't even remember why I purchased this obscure, forgotten play. I think it was performed in England for a few weeks in 1955, critically acclaimed, but probably its HINT OF HOMOSEXUALITY was its damnation, although the topic is never explicit. Now this little book is hard to find and I know I paid $10 or more for it used, which is a lot for me, pathetically. I just raged through the final two acts, unable to stop. Its only flaw it its occasional soap-operatics, but not enough to diminish the entire experience.

[سلوان البري · Rating 5 out of 5]

#ريڤيو_سريع عن مسرحية الجنوب للكاتب/ جوليان جرين؛ وترجمة/ عبد الفتاح الديدي.
★★★★★
المسرحية باختصار تتحدث عن حرب تحرير العبيد التي خاضتها أمريكا بداية من عام ١٨٦١م.. ويشرح لنا مؤلف العمل كيف يفكر المجتمع الأمريكي آنذاك من خلال أسرة جنوبية تمتلك عددًا كبيرًا من العبيد أثناء الحرب وما بين اختلاف وجهات نظر أفراد العائلة الواحدة تجاه الحرب نرىٰ المعنىٰ الضمني للعمل. ويلمح القارئ ما بين السطور حقيقة رؤية المواطن للحرب في وقتها.. فالأسرة هنا هي تمثيل لطوائف المجتمع بأفكاره المتباينة وآرائه المتعددة.

المسرحية تُعد من الوثائقيات التي توضح أهوال الحرب الحقيقية وآثارها المدمرة علىٰ الأفراد والأوطان.
وبرغم النهاية التاريخية المعروفة لهذه الحرب، إلا أن العمل المسرحي يتجه إلىٰ توثيق ما هو أبعد من النتائج المعلنة؛ فالحقيقة تكمن في رؤية البشر للحروب.. وهذا هو لُب العمل.

أما عن الترجمة فقد جاءت ممتازة وواضحة تعمل علىٰ مساعدة قارئها في تفهم الأحداث بوضوح -خاصة- النوع غير المُـلم بدقة تفاصيل هذه الحرب.
...ونهاية أرشحها لمن يهوىٰ الاطلاع علىٰ الأعمال المسرحية والتاريخية.

#قراءات_حول_العالم
★★★★★

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

A play that gets mentioned in histories 20th Century drama, primarily because it was one of the earliest mainstream plays to have a clearly homosexual protagonist. It's hardly racy, but even the notion that the central character might desire another man got it banned by the Lord Chamberlain in the UK; it was produced under club conditions, in a production by Peter Hall starring Denholm Elliott. Set on a Southern plantation the day before the civil war breaks out, it's a heady brew of unrequited lusts - not only the protagonist for a Southern scion but also a young woman for the protagonist, and the scion and the daughter of the house somehow not able to get it together. The house has its slaves, and these are underdeveloped minor characters. It's admirable in the sense that it's not a heavily ideological piece - either asking for understanding of homosexuals or condemnation for slavery; rather, it seems to be about how important historical events and political ideas are much less important for the play's characters than their desires.

The protagonist, Jan, is hard to like and quite opaque - he is thrice estranged in the house, as an émigré Pole, a non-family member, and a homosexual. Kenneth Williams loathed the play, because it ends with death and misery for our hero, and his position (at that point in the 50s) was that it was possible to be both gay and happy. The author clearly intends formal nods to Greek drama - the set is described as being a mansion based on a Greek temple, the central character's flaws lead to his death (suicide by duel), and there's even an old, blind black slave who comes on and predicts the denouement, obviously based on Tiresias.

I've always wondered why no one revived it, given its historical interest and British theatre's propensity for digging up gay plays of the mid-20th century. But its antebellum setting, concentration on characters who either approve of slavery or are indifferent to it, and problematic sidelining of black characters make it pretty much a no-go. The maid, Eliza, is almost impossible to imagine being portrayed now, given her propensity for using the n-word for her fellow slaves (despite being a promising portrayal of the psychology of the type Malcolm X referred to as the "house Negro." It's also not very good, veering from overly talky to overly ripe, with the ending pure melodrama rather than catharsis. I suspect that audiences would find it immensely difficult to engage with now.