ROLLSPRÅK OCH NYCKELORD I KOBO ABES MANNEN SOM BLEV EN STAV. Ett lingvistiskt ramverk för att utforska politisk teater

Abstract

This study has aimed to investigate Kobo Abe's play The Man Who Turned into a Stick through linguistical analysis to reveal whether the usage of keywords and role language can be found. Additionally, it explores in what way these concepts have been utilized as a means of conveying a message to the intended audience of said play. Role language has recently been seeing a lot of research done on the genres of manga, anime, Tv-dramas, etc., but very few of these studies have been done on political theatre. Following the vein of Brechtian ‘gestus’ and the use of stereotypes, one might assume that these phenomena should be prevalent in political theatre as well. Linguistical studies of Japanese political theatre, or political theatre in general, are also few and far between. As such, basic frameworks for analyzing these works of art need to be explored. A lexical analysis has been implemented using a framework based on earlier research. The role language analysis has been conducted using Kinsui’s theories of role language. The results of these investigations have then been compared to ideas and theory about political theatre to reveal whether these methods have been employed with a strategic end in mind. Both role language and certain keywords have been found to be present in the manuscript, and through creating different characters using varying keywords, Abe has successfully managed to make the message of his play clear without becoming didactic.