How to Read Un hangar, à l’ouest and Carnets de Combat de Nègre et de chiens by Bernard-Marie Koltès?

The work by the French playwright Bernard-Maria Koltès (1948–1989) is interesting not from the point of view of the content, but the form. The form is unusually diversified and so are its structures: from a philosophical dialogue in Diderot’s style, through a soliloquy or rather a quasi-monologue and an almost classical 17^th-century text, to the play (Roberto Zucco) which is a synthesis of diverse forms (intersection of tragedy and the baroque and Shakespearean drama). What is even more intriguing, particularly in the light of the conference’s theme, is its presence within art or as a text or commentary that accompanies the art. I refer to Carnets de combat de nègre et des chiens, which follows the play Combat de nègre et de chiens, and to Un hangar, à l’ouest, which is a commentary (?) on the play Quai ouest, and to an appendix to the play, Pour mettre en scène “Quai ouest”. What is even more interesting are the fragments inserted inside the play Quai ouest; they appear in inverted comas, in between the scenes, and as monologues by the characters. They are very important for the understanding of the play, but intended only to be read and not performed. Koltès insisted on the monologues not being performed at all, but only being present as a text for reading.

I will discuss the nature of these texts and investigate their role in relation to the text of the play itself. The question is whether they should be treated as an integral part of the play of a commentary loosely associated with it. I will try to understand the playwright’s intention when he rejected the idea of including the monologues that are important parts of the play.