Misplaced Pages

The Breasts of Tiresias

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
For an opera by Poulenc, see Les mamelles de Tirésias.
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (May 2011) Click for important translation instructions.
  • View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article.
  • Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages.
  • Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
  • You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution.
  • You may also add the template {{Translated|es|Las tetas de Tiresias}} to the talk page.
  • For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (February 2016) Click for important translation instructions.
  • View a machine-translated version of the French article.
  • Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages.
  • Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
  • You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution.
  • You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Les Mamelles de Tirésias}} to the talk page.
  • For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.
The Breasts of Tiresias
Written byGuillaume Apollinaire
Date premiered1917 (1917)
Original languageFrench
GenreSurrealist drama

The Breasts of Tiresias (French: Les mamelles de Tirésias) is a surrealist play by Guillaume Apollinaire. Written in 1903, the play received its first production in a revised version subtitled Drame surréaliste in 1917. With this subtitle and in the preface to the play, the poet invented the word "surrealism" to describe his new style of drama.

The play has been adapted into an opera by Francis Poulenc. It also has been translated twice, first by Louis Simpson in the 1960s and then by Maya Slater in 2009. In 2010, Eric "Wally" Wallach adapted and directed The Breasts of Tiresias: A Surrealist Musical in Paris.

Plot

Inspired by the story of the Theban soothsayer Teiresias, the author inverted the myth to produce a provocative interpretation with feminist and pacifist elements. He tells the story of Thérèse, who changes her sex to obtain power among men, with the aim of changing customs, subverting the past, and establishing equality between the sexes.

References

  1. Breton, André. The Magnetic Fields. English translation and introduction by David Gascoyne. (London: Atlas Press, 1997). p. 39
  2. Brockett and Hildy (2003, 439).
  3. Banham (1998, 1043).

Sources

  • Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0-521-43437-8.
  • Brockett, Oscar G. and Franklin J. Hildy. 2003. History of the Theatre. Ninth edition, International edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0-205-41050-2.

External links

Guillaume Apollinaire
Novels
Plays
Poetry collections
Other
Portrayals
Related
Categories: