Abjection in Selected Plays by Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill, and Tim Crouch

• Název práce v češtině: Abjekce ve vybraných hrách Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill a Tima Crouche
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Abjection in Selected Plays by Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill, and Tim Crouch
• Klíčová slova: britské divadlo|Tim Crouch|Caryl Churchill|Sarah Kane|abjekce|abjekt|Julia Kristeva|britské drama
• Klíčová slova anglicky: British theatre|Tim Crouch|Caryl Churchill|Sarah Kane|abjection|abject|Julia Kristeva|British drama
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2014/2015
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: doc. Clare Wallace, M.A., Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 24.03.2015
• Datum zadání: 24.03.2015
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 25.03.2015
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 05.09.2017 00:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 02.08.2017
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 05.09.2017
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: prof. Mgr. Ondřej Pilný, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

In 1995, Sarah Kane brought the Yugoslav war to Leeds in Blasted (1995) as an antidote to the illusion of distance and safety created by the news media. The play followed in the footsteps of Edward Bond, Howard Brenton and a number of other theatre makers who have explored the theme of war and conflict in a “post-war” world, and who have proven that theatre can yet be more disturbing than reality, particularly when interpreted as a deliberate attack on certain sensibilities. The present thesis revisits Sarah Kane’s early work and links it to the work of Tim Crouch and Caryl Churchill. The chief premise is that these theatre makers have, at various stages of their careers, written theatre which seeks to induce states of abjection in spectators in order to offer them a more active role within as well as without the theatre space. The thesis discusses the grotesque, voyeurism, and taboo – three of the themes and techniques used to fabricate strong reactions in such formally diverse pieces of theatre as Far Away, Cleansed, or The Author. These and other works dealing with war and conflict are read against Julia Kristeva’s work on abjection and Jacques Rancière’s work on spectatorship.
The introductory chapter provides a brief genealogy of British theatre after Blasted, which is not situated at the beginning of a tendency towards staging abjection, but rather as a continuation of a theatre forged all through the 20^th century, that of breaking taboos in order to break the conventions of representation, and also, thematically, of exploring the debilitating effects of war on the human being (Woyzeck, The Romans in Britain).
The first chapter explores the grotesque featured in selected plays, from fantastic groupings of humans and animals, or different humans, to the sense applicable to theatre, that of a lack of distinction between good and evil or beauty and ugliness, and the accompanying lack of redeeming features and closure in the plays. The visceral nature of Blasted or the sinister ending of The Author, for example, lack a sense of moral guidance (phronēsis) which has disturbed audiences to the point of failure to distinguish between reality and fiction.
The second chapter discusses voyeurism as an inherent feature of theatre (Peter Brook) much beyond its original sexual connotation. The passive act of “looking” begins to generate meanings of its own, and so to affect characters and spectators. Kane explores voyeurism in terms of fetishism and surveillance in Cleansed; in Far Away, two characters watch public beheadings as entertainment, while Tim Crouch perpetually builds and breaks the fourth wall in his work, inviting the audience to do the same.
The third chapter will read child characters as part of a larger debate surrounding theatrical representations of taboo. The chapter will discuss children as victims, as well as the phenomenon of adult, damaged, childlike characters such as Cate in Blasted, and their abuse as a form of universal taboo explored and exploited for theatre. Yet another kind of discussion is invited with works such as Seven Jewish Children, where the child is absent from the work itself but addressed together with the audience.
The conclusion will be more comparative in its methodology than the rest of the thesis for the purpose of bringing together the three principal inquiries and theatre makers, of summarizing the techniques and inquiries surrounding abjection and its functions in theatre, and of outlining recent tendencies towards and beyond conceptualizations of conflict as well as new theoretical appraisals of the political potential of the theatre medium.

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