In the Crooked Mirror. Genre. Idea. Theatre (A few Observations about N. N. Wenzel’s Play „The Story of Mr Ivanov”)

Abstract

The present text attempts to analyse the play of an obscure, early 20th century playwright, Wenzel. The play in focus is „The story of Mr Ivanov”. The author of the paper tries to show the links between Wenzel’s text and the plays of his conteporaries and to indicate where exactly the satire is aimed. For, in Wenzel’s text one can find the playwright’s debate with Blok, Andriejev, Sologub and Hofmansthal. Wenzel’s work also, in a certain way, takes up a debate with the morality play which was used by the early 20th century writers. All the above observations authorize us to conclude that Wenzel remains perfectly in tune with the principle which governed the old comedy, the crooked mirror of a tragedy parodying all literary devices of the tragedy.