“This isn’t tat. This isn’t bric-a-brac” (Phaedra’s Love): the Poetics of Things in Sarah Kane’s Theatre
The evolution of Sarah Kane’s work has frequently been considered as Janus-faced. The first plays are often classed as examples of the “In-Yer-Face theatre”, a theatre which shocks through strong language and violent images while the last two plays, Crave and 4.48 Psychosis, tend towards abstraction...
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| 发表在: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc, |
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| 格式: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| 语言: | Anglais |
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Études britanniques contemporaines
2019
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| 在线阅读: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_6015 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_6015 https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.6015 urn:doi:10.4000/ebc.6015 en https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/6015 2019-04-05T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/fe8n https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ “This isn’t tat. This isn’t bric-a-brac” (Phaedra’s Love): the Poetics of Things in Sarah Kane’s Theatre Études britanniques contemporaines Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2271-5444 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1168-4917 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc Obis, Éléonore The evolution of Sarah Kane’s work has frequently been considered as Janus-faced. The first plays are often classed as examples of the “In-Yer-Face theatre”, a theatre which shocks through strong language and violent images while the last two plays, Crave and 4.48 Psychosis, tend towards abstraction and put an emphasis on voices in a theatre that has abandoned all conventions. The purpose of this article is to analyse the evolution of Sarah Kane’s work through the poetics of things. The plays can be read as a constant search for what the limits of our humanity are, limits that are questioned through the medium of objects as representatives of the outside world. The study of things reveals first a constant retreat from realism through the use of objects as foils: the iconicity between the things on stage and the world is strongly put into question and is finally dispensed with. Secondly, this retreat accompanies the blurring of frontiers on all levels: the limits between the subject and the world, between the human and the non-human are undermined, a phenomenon that is highlighted through the reification of characters and language. Eventually, the transgression of frontiers allows for the juxtaposition of contraries which is analysed through the central figure of the oxymoron. It is the epitome of Sarah Kane’s ongoing search for a form expressing both the necessity to communicate through language and the impossibility of doing so. L’œuvre de Sarah Kane est une œuvre à deux visages. Les premières pièces sont encore informées par un fonctionnement mimétique ayant pour vocation de choquer le spectateur, notamment par la surexposition du corps torturé, supplicié, mutilé alors que Crave et 4.48 Psychosis abandonnent cette esthétique du choc de l’“In-yer-face theatre” pour un théâtre poétique de voix non caractérisées. Ce caractère janusien de l’œuvre peut être analysé à la lumière de l’étude du fonctionnement poétique des choses. Si des objets sont encore présents dans les premières pièces, ceux-ci ne sont, comme tout élément réaliste chez Kane, que des repoussoirs servant à renforcer l’idée d’un mouvement implacable de destruction et de déconstruction. Redoublant ce phénomène, la violence sur scène, dans une quête de redéfinition de notre humanité, détruit les corps pour les réduire à l’état de choses, tas de viande progressivement privés de parole et de mouvement. La poétique des choses permet finalement de mettre en relief un fonctionnement oxymoronique de toute l’œuvre dans la juxtaposition systématique des contraires. Ce fonctionnement est emblématique de la posture contradictoire de Sarah Kane: exprimer la nécessité de communiquer tout en reconnaissant l’impossibilité d’une telle tentative. |
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OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| description |
The evolution of Sarah Kane’s work has frequently been considered as Janus-faced. The first plays are often classed as examples of the “In-Yer-Face theatre”, a theatre which shocks through strong language and violent images while the last two plays, Crave and 4.48 Psychosis, tend towards abstraction and put an emphasis on voices in a theatre that has abandoned all conventions. The purpose of this article is to analyse the evolution of Sarah Kane’s work through the poetics of things. The plays can be read as a constant search for what the limits of our humanity are, limits that are questioned through the medium of objects as representatives of the outside world. The study of things reveals first a constant retreat from realism through the use of objects as foils: the iconicity between the things on stage and the world is strongly put into question and is finally dispensed with. Secondly, this retreat accompanies the blurring of frontiers on all levels: the limits between the subject and the world, between the human and the non-human are undermined, a phenomenon that is highlighted through the reification of characters and language. Eventually, the transgression of frontiers allows for the juxtaposition of contraries which is analysed through the central figure of the oxymoron. It is the epitome of Sarah Kane’s ongoing search for a form expressing both the necessity to communicate through language and the impossibility of doing so. |
| author |
Obis, Éléonore |
| spellingShingle |
Obis, Éléonore “This isn’t tat. This isn’t bric-a-brac” (Phaedra’s Love): the Poetics of Things in Sarah Kane’s Theatre |
| author_facet |
Obis, Éléonore |
| author_sort |
Obis, Éléonore |
| title |
“This isn’t tat. This isn’t bric-a-brac” (Phaedra’s Love): the Poetics of Things in Sarah Kane’s Theatre |
| title_short |
“This isn’t tat. This isn’t bric-a-brac” (Phaedra’s Love): the Poetics of Things in Sarah Kane’s Theatre |
| title_full |
“This isn’t tat. This isn’t bric-a-brac” (Phaedra’s Love): the Poetics of Things in Sarah Kane’s Theatre |
| title_fullStr |
“This isn’t tat. This isn’t bric-a-brac” (Phaedra’s Love): the Poetics of Things in Sarah Kane’s Theatre |
| title_full_unstemmed |
“This isn’t tat. This isn’t bric-a-brac” (Phaedra’s Love): the Poetics of Things in Sarah Kane’s Theatre |
| title_sort |
“this isn’t tat. this isn’t bric-a-brac” (phaedra’s love): the poetics of things in sarah kane’s theatre |
| publisher |
Études britanniques contemporaines |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.6015 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/6015 |
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1877241658601373696 |