TRAUMA ON THE CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH STAGE

Tez Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: İstanbul Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Edebiyat Fakültesi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tez Danışmanı: Prof. Dr. Esra Melikoğlu

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2013

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Desteklendiği Program: Diğer

Özet:

This study aims to explore personal and collective traumas in three representative in-yer-face plays: Sarah Kane's Blasted, Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and F***ing and Philip Ridley's Mercury Fur. These three playwrights, who are among the most outstanding playwrights of the British theatre and in-yer-face movement, wrote their plays after the 1990s, which were still overshadowed by the horrific historical events of the twentieth century. Again, written shortly before and after the millennium, they usher in the ghosts of a traumatic past and fear of the future. First, the in-yer-face movement will be placed in the theatre tradition by examining its ties with the Theatre of Cruelty, the Theatre of the Absurd, and the Theatre of Catastrophe. Under the guidance of Trauma theory and taking into consideration the effects of the historical and cultural background of Britain after World War II, this study will then attempt to show that in the plays under discussion dystopian and traumatic elements become more and more central. Each character both because of his/her problematic personal background and collective catastrophes and radical changes is heavily traumatized. Story-telling, the telling of trauma, becomes central to the plays. It triggers trauma, but it also suggests a fragile chance of redemption for the characters and possibility for a better future. Recurrent trauma shatters their apathy or refusal to remember horrific events, memory of which must be recovered for the characters and culture to be healed. However, a sense of dystopia prevails. Keywords: English Literature, Contemporary English Theatre after the 1990s, Trauma Theory, Theatre Theory, In-yer-face theatre