Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology: Differentiated Working Strategies, Dramaturgical Manipulations and the Theme of Death in the Work of Marina Carr and Emma Dante A dissertation presented by Brenda Donohue to Dept. of Italian, Trinity College Dublin for the Degree of Philosophy 31st October 2012 Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology i Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology Declaration I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and that it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University open access institutional repository or allow the Library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. Signed, Brenda Donohue 31 October 2012 ii Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology iii Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology Table of Contents Declaration ................................................................................................................................................ ii Summary ................................................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. xii Dedication .............................................................................................................................................. xvi Chapter One - Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Cultural Context: Making Theatre in Italy and Ireland ........................................................... 10 Positioning of this Project within the Academic Field ......................................................... 23 Introducing Emma Dante ........................................................................................................ 29 Introducing Marina Carr .......................................................................................................... 36 Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 43 Practical Concerns ..................................................................................................................... 43 Theoretical Approach – Anxiety of Ontology ....................................................................... 45 Interactions between Ontologies............................................................................................. 82 Thesis Structure: Outlines of Further Chapters ........................................................................ 83 Why this Thesis? Why Now? ...................................................................................................... 95 Chapter Two- Differentiated Working Strategies ............................................................................ 98 Identifying Differentiated Working Strategies ....................................................................... 101 Process – Searching and Collaborating? .................................................................................. 102 I Want to Write Alone! ........................................................................................................... 118 Positioning – Am I Who You Say I Am? .................................................................................. 126 In the Thick of it or Hanging on the Margins? .................................................................... 135 Chapter Three – Dramaturgical Manipulations .............................................................................. 144 Borrowing From Autolycus’ Bag .............................................................................................. 145 Breaking the Form ....................................................................................................................... 148 Defying Expectations with non-linear narrative ................................................................ 149 iv Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology Experimenting With Traditional Structures ........................................................................ 152 Challenging with Content .......................................................................................................... 156 The Woman Will Not Be As Represented ............................................................................ 157 Wrestling with the Figure of “Woman” Past ....................................................................... 164 Attacking the Authority of the Gender Binary .................................................................... 168 Intervention into Received Themes .......................................................................................... 179 Motherhood and the Ideal Mother ........................................................................................ 181 Marriage and Heterosexual Relationships ........................................................................... 187 Subverting the Sacred “Family” – “la famiglia da cui siamo protetti e di cui siamo prigionieri” ............................................................................................................................... 193 The Palimpsest ............................................................................................................................. 203 Chapter Four – Challenging Death(s) ................................................................................................206 A Signifier with a Multiplicity of Meanings ............................................................................ 207 Historical Thinking on Suicide .................................................................................................. 222 A Feminist View ...................................................................................................................... 224 Resistant Suicide .......................................................................................................................... 227 Nina Resists - “ho sognato delle grandi ali dorate” ........................................................... 229 Woman Defies – “I ran west to die”...................................................................................... 234 Problematizing Resistant Death ............................................................................................ 249 Chapter Five – “What does a mirror look at?” .................................................................................253 The Figure of the Author ............................................................................................................ 254 “I always look in mirrors to find out what’s happening to me” .......................................... 259 Many Anxieties in One ........................................................................................................... 262 Negative Readings of Voluntary Death ................................................................................... 274 Desire to Die? ........................................................................................................................... 276 The Possibility of Other Readings? ....................................................................................... 280 The “Double” and the Anxiety of Ontology ............................................................................ 284 Chapter Six – Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................297 Notes ........................................................................................................................................................322 v Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology Works Cited …………………………………………………………………………………………....353 vi Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology vii Towards a Theory of the Anxiety of Ontology Summary This thesis provides a feminist and comparative analysis of the unique ontological position of two contemporary female playwrights, Marina Carr and Emma Dante, in the Republic of Ireland and Italy. It interrogates the specificity of their position within a profession that has traditionally been defined in masculine terms, and examines the influence of such a status on their artistic processes as well as their theatrical work. I propose a hypothesis that claims such an influence is manifest within the artists, and their work, in what I term (after Harold Bloom and Gilbert & Gubar) the Anxiety of Ontology. The thesis examines how a background of gender inequality alters the playwrights’ work, inspiring them to contest traditional forms and models and propose new feminine exemplars in their work. Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence and Gilbert & Gubar’s Anxiety of Authorship inform my development of the theory of the Anxiety of Ontology, while Judith Butler’s notion of gender as a performative act assist my reading of the ontology of female playwrights as culturally separate and distinct from that of male playwrights and writers of novels, poetry and prose. The project is divided into six distinct sections, beginning with an introductory section, which situates the work