Vedere con i propri occhi : l'ignorante e il folle di Thomas Bernhard come indagine autoptica

Seeing with one’s own eyes. Thomas Bernhard’s "The Ignoramus and the Madman" as autoptic examination. This article examines the role of science and medicine in Thomas Bernhard’s second drama, "Der Ignorant und der Wahnsinnige" (1972). It first analyzes the doctor’s attitude towards the other characters and the scientific examination: through his rambling talk the pathologist performs an imaginary post mortem, trying to comprehend and control the existence, as well as to fix his own identity. On the one hand, the doctor creates a parallelism between artistic perfection, inhuman machinery and death body; on the other hand, he presents himself as a kind of artistic figure who idealizes his social role and wants to realize a total/totalizing project. Such an illusion unravels the doctor’s desire to mitigate his world-weariness. For this reason, in spite of his methodological rigor, the pathologist is unable to find out the ‘nature of things’, the cause of the mortal disease which affects any rational mind. The article goes on to argue that the obsessive-maniac doctor in the play is the key-figure to understand the author’s meta-theatrical reflection.