Summary : The comic sacrifice of Valère Novarina
A rhetorical study of the period 1975 to 2010

At once comic, tonic, rhythmic, inventive, chaotic, aesthetic and utterly incomprehensible, the language used by Novarina is here considered on a formal level. Through a panoramic and subtle description of the rhetorical “Novarinian” arsenal, this work intends to establish a comprehensive evaluation of the work the playwright has done to this day. A systematic study of the most recurrent figures of speech amounts to exploring this new domain ; if there is novelty, there is also a subtle reneval of age-old traditions (farce, carnival, mystery) which does not prevent Novarina from being at the very heart of modernity. The plays will be selected and put forward according to the formal aspect studied : variations on biblical themes, critical of the media and other institutions, tribute to Shakespeare, circus, food, emptiness, kénôse, “pantinity”, etc. In sum, this study aims to achieve the following objectives : emphasizing the incredible rhetorical variety found in this plays and highlighting their comic dimension, finding new ways of exploring Novarina works (sport, bestiary, “logodynamic”, science-fiction, Taoism, childhood, Pataphysic, connections with Lewis Carroll), mapping this labyrinthine imagination, setting up a work-structure and marking out the path with pebbles as did Tom Thumb, attempting to define the adjective “Novarinian” and trying to explore the mystery of his sphinx-like work, accepting as our own one of the demiurge’s war cries : “What we cannot speak about, is precisely what we must say”.

Keywords : Novarina ; comic ; Word ; words ; rhythm ; rhetoric ; literature ; theatre ; scene ; God ; poetry.