The Republic of Turkey Ankara University Graduate School of Social Sciences Department of Western Languages and Literatures (English Language and Literature)
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THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY ANKARA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) SUBJECTIFICATION OF THE LIMINAL OTHER IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH DRAMA: SARAH KANE’S CLEANSED, ANTHONY NEILSON’S THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISSOCIA AND MARINA CARR’S PORTIA COUGHLAN M.A. THESIS Onur KARAKÖSE Ankara -2020 THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY ANKARA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) SUBJECTIFICATION OF THE LIMINAL OTHER IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH DRAMA: SARAH KANE’S CLEANSED, ANTHONY NEILSON’S THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISSOCIA AND MARINA CARR’S PORTIA COUGHLAN M.A. THESIS Onur KARAKÖSE Supervisor Assist. Prof.Dr. Nisa Harika GÜZEL KÖŞKER Ankara -2020 THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY ANKARA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) SUBJECTIFICATION OF THE LIMINAL OTHER IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH DRAMA: SARAH KANE’S CLEANSED, ANTHONY NEILSON’S THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISSOCIA AND MARINA CARR’S PORTIA COUGHLAN M.A. THESIS Supervisor: Assist. Prof.Dr. Nisa Harika GÜZEL KÖŞKER Examining Committee Members Title, Name and Surname Signature 1- Prof. Dr. Belgin ELBİR ……………………. 2- Assoc. Prof.Dr. Sıla ŞENLEN GÜVENÇ ……………………. 3- Assist. Prof. Dr. Nisa Harika GÜZEL KÖŞKER ……………………. Examination Date: 20.07.2020 TO THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY ANKARA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES I hereby declare that in the dissertation “Subjectification Of The Liminal Other In Contemporary British Drama: Sarah Kane’s Cleansed, Anthony Neilson’s The Wonderful World Of Dissocia And Marina Carr’s Portia Coughlan (Ankara – 2020)”, prepared under the supervision of Assist. Prof.Dr. Nisa Harika Güzel Köşker, all information has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced a1l material and results that are not original to this work. (…. /…. /2020) Onur KARAKÖSE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am immensely indebted and grateful to my supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Nisa Harika Güzel Köşker for her kindness, critical advice and understanding. She has always steered me in the right direction and enheartened me so as to soldier on and do my best during my research and thesis process. I would like to extend my gratitude to the members of my examination committee: Prof. Dr. Belgin Elbir for her constructive criticism and helpful suggestions, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sıla Şenlen Güvenç for her critical comments as well as for introducing me to Contemporary British Drama and helping me improve. I also wish to thank Dr. Sotirios Bampatzimopoulos for his valuable input. Above all, I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude to my family for always standing by me, encouraging me and not letting me give up. I have to thank my sister Esra Karaköse for always cheering me up and giving me all the advice and support when needed. I also want to thank my grandparents, aunts, and my lovely cousins for enkindling my spirit with their lovely words and never-ending support. Lastly, I would like to express my immense debt and gratitude to my parents Mehmet Ali Karaköse and Nazife Karaköse, whose sacrifices and unwavering compassion have always been the greatest catalyst for my success. i TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I: SUBJECTIFICATION OF THE LIMINAL OTHER IN POST-1990 CONTEMPORARY BRITISH DRAMA ...................................................................... 9 1.The Three Modes of Objectification of the Subject: Scientific Categorization, Dividing Principles and Subjectification .......................................................................................... 9 2.Liminal Theory ............................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER II: FROM TINKERED BODIES TO TRANSCENDENTAL SYMBIOSIS: CORPOREAL SUBJECTIFICATION OF THE ABNORMAL LIMINAL OTHER IN SARAH KANE’S CLEANSED (1998) ............................. 32 CHAPTER III: JOURNEYING INTO THE UNCONSCIOUS: PSYCHOLOGICAL SUBJECTIFICATION OF THE PHANTASMAGORIC LIMINAL OTHER IN ANTHONY NEILSON’S THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISSOCIA (2004) .......................................................................................................... 80 CHAPTER IV: BURIED ALIVE: FAMILIAL SUBJECTIFICATION OF THE ABJECT LIMINAL OTHER IN MARINA CARR’S PORTIA COUGHLAN (1996) ....................................................................................................................................... 125 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 169 WORKS CITED .......................................................................................................... 178 ÖZET ............................................................................................................................ 189 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. 192 ii INTRODUCTION Post-1990 Contemporary British Drama marks the emergence of plays that deal with brutal aggression, extreme forms of violence, rape, repressed emotions, sex, gender reality and taboos; all of which providing source of analysis for inquiring the subversive techniques of dominant ideologies targeting the subject. As Aleks Sierz observes, the nasty nineties witnessed a theatre that “broke all taboos, chipping away at the binary oppositions that structure our sense of reality” (In-Yer-Face 30), a social reality in regards to gender and identity that is questioned through portrayals of extremity of violence and sharp-tongued criticism that cuts deep. Breaking the taboos and imbibing the extremity of experiences as its focal point, several dramatists of post-1990 Contemporary British drama have written plays deconstructing the impositions of social reality on liminal female characters. These liminal characters are betwixt and between what is envisioned for them as proper subjects, i.e. being a dutiful wife and nurturing mother and what their already fragmented self aims to achieve in the form of a discovery of a self that is free from such impositions. This subversively liminal attribution of the theatre culminated in plays that question gender normativity, subjectification of the body and soul engraved in the biopolitics of the heteronormative patriarchal order. For the purpose of analysing the contemporary issues of female subjectivity, subjectification of the body, liminality and violence through staging of corporeal and psychological punishment as part of the post- 1990s Contemporary British Drama, this thesis argues that Sarah Kane’s Cleansed (1998) Anthony Neilson’s The Wonderful World of Dissocia (2004) and Marina Carr’s Portia Coughlan (1996) stand out as offering distinctive representations for the mutual goal of the formation of identity that is free from subjectivity, gender bias and phallogocentric discourse. In arguing this, this thesis initiates discussion first with the Foucauldian 1 conception of subjectification followed by Judith Butler’s renegotiation of the concept, merging the analyses of the plays with the theory of subjectification. Even though all of the three plays differ from each other in terms of the ways in which the question subjectification is inscribed on the bodies and souls of its heroines, the plays posit essentially as the dramatic representations renegotiating the issue of the subjectification of identity, mainly derived from the Foucauldian theory on biopower and subjectification. This thesis focuses then on the liminal aspect of the female heroines of these plays who are subjugated to corporeal and psychological subjectification. It attempts to merge the theory of subjectification with the theory of liminality developed by the British anthropologist Victor Turner to point essentially to the stark representation of the characters that are betwixt and between the enforced subjectification and a search for a self that is free from ideology. Furthermore, through a close reading of the plays in relation to the female body and the female experience, this thesis attempts to delineate how the subjectification process is inherently patriarchal and heteronormative. It argues that the deconstruction of the plays points specifically to representations that renegotiate the female and queer experience through theatre that provokes thought and action with reference to the ongoing discussion on gender normativity and identity politics. This thesis consists of four main chapters analysing the subjectification process that each liminal heroine undergoes and what their defiance entails for the discussion of gender, identity and subjectivity. In this regard, the first chapter of this study attempts to provide a theoretical base of analysis on the question of subjectification and liminality from which the related psychoanalytic ties in regards to identity formation will be sprung and examined. To form such an analysis, the first chapter explores the three modes of the Foucauldian objectification of the subject. It will then explore how the process of subjectification is essential to the biopolitics of modern nation states, exploring the techniques of domination