CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN DRAMA AND mmSCIENCE A Thesis Presented to The Facuity of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by LIANA ELIZABETH MADDOCKS In partial fiünllment of requuements for the degree of Master of Arts August, 2000 @ Liana Elizabeth Maddocks, 2000 Acquisiions and Acquisitions et BbI'bgraphic SeMces senrices bibliographiques 395 WeningtOn Street 395, rue Wellington -ON K1AûN4 OttawaûN K1AW Canada canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationde du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonÜ, vendre des copies de cette thése sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fÏlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son pemission. autorisation. CONTlEMPORARY CANADIANDRAMA AND THE NEW SCIENCE Liana Elizabeth Maddocks Advisor: University of Guelph, 2000 Ric Knowles This thesis is an investigation of the use of post-Newtonian physics in contemporary Canadian drama, focusing Iargely on John Mightoli's The Little Years, John KNanc's The Halfof It, and Jason Sherman's Patience as plays that explicitly invoke "the new science" in their constructions of characier, action, and audience. Foliowing the examination of these plays, this thesis explores the implications of the unconscious usage of this model, examining Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks' Here Lies Henry, Daniel Brooks and GuiIIenno Verdecchia's Immnin, and Daniel MacIvor's The Soldier Dream as plays that utilise the principles of post-Newtonianism without explicit citation of the science. The conclusion of this thesis investigates the cultural work perfiomed by the drarnatic usage of %e new science", explo~gthe model's paralIeI potential for both intervention and collusion in oppressive hegemonies. TABLE OF CONTENTS CIHAPTERONE: Introduction: From Science to the Stage.. ................................................. 1 - 17 CRAPmTWo: From Character to Subject: John Mighton's The Little Yems, John Krizanc's The Halfof It and Jason Sheman's Patience.. ........................................................... 18 -29 CHAPTER TEREE: From Action to Behaviour. John Mighton's The Little Yems, John Krizanc's The Halfof &and Jason Sherman's Patience ...........................................**...............30 - 50 CHAPTER FOUR: From Passive Observer to Active Participant: John MÏghton's The Little Yems, John Krizanc's The Harfof It and Jason Sherman's Patr'ence................................ .5 1 - 69 CHAPTER m: Beyond Citation: Daniel MacIvor and Danie1 Brooks' Here Lies Henry, Daniel Brooks and Guillenno Verdecchia's Insomnia, and Daniel MacIvor's The Soldier Dreum., ........................................................................................ 70 - 84 CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion: Contemporaiy Canadian Drama and the New Science.. ................ -85 - 97 CEAPTER ONE Introduction: Ftom Science to the Stage Physicists of past centuries providecl more than theorems and proofs; their work aiso in£luenced visions of humanlty's place in the world Explorations of thuigs such as the "true" shape of the earth and its place in the universe âffited how people sought their positions in both universal and local hierarchies. Adopting a tenn from science in her work Chaos Bound: Orderly DLrorder in Contemporary Scimice und Literizture, N. Katherine Hayles casthe reciprocai interaction between science and culture a Yeedback loop," where the connections are 'hot generally expIainable by direct influence" but by the shared 'L~uituraifield withùi which certain questions or concepts become highly charged" (Chaos Bound 4). This feedback loop denotes that a shared epistemological base cm prompt similar inquiries across disciplines, while the disciplines' investigative movements can strengthen the acceptance of that epistemology. Such a feedback loop occurs between the investigations of drama and science, as each system seeks to understand and interpret the world. Historicdy, the link between the two can be seen to exist in the naturaikt drama of the late nineteenth cenhrry and the eighteenth-century scientific theories of Newton. Although a significant temporal divide separates these dates, that delay reflects the epistemological process Uivolved when scientSc investigation is absorbed into cornmon discomeeIn Newton's own time, his theories were only emergent, but by the thne of mturalism they had entered into the "feedback loop," and emerged as part of the new hegemony. Newton's physics introduced a fiamework for understanding the construction of the world, reality, and human destmy. In Taking the Quuntum Leop, Fred Alan Wolf sums up Newton's theoretical conûihtions to science as foliows: (1) Thmgs moved m a contlliuous manner. All motion, both in the large and in the mail, exhibits continuity. (2) Things moved for reasons. These reasons were based upon eârlier causes for motion- Therefore, aiI motion was determined and everything was predictable. (3) Ail motion could be analysed or broken down mto its component parts. Each part played a role in the great machine cailed the universe, and the complexity of this machhe could be understood as the simple movement of its various parts, even those parts beyond our perception. (4) The observer observed, never disturbed Even the errors of a clumsy observer cotiid be accounted for by sirnply analyshg the observed movements of whatever he touched. (56) Newton's world was detemiristic one, where every cause had an effect. This mechanical understanding made everything knowable; the entire universe was an enormous, intercomected clockwork, whose intricate workbgs were ail observable to those who used the nght tools. David Lindley, in mere Dues the Weirdness Go? explains that the role of the physicists was to: trace out these links of cause-and-effect in perfect detail, thereby rendering the gast understandable and the future predictable. The accumulation of experimentd and theoretical howledge was taken ÏnarguabIy to brhg a single and coherent view of the universe into ever sharper focus. Every piece of new information, every new inteiIectual insight, every new elucidaîion of the linkages of cause-and-effect added another cog to the clockwork of the universe. (1) The implications of Newton's ideas stretched well beyond the realm ofphysics and into the discourse of other disciphes. Wolfwrites that: By the end of the nineteenth century, classical physics had becorne not only the mode1 for the physicd universe, but the model for human behaviour as weII. The wave of mechanicd rnaterialism, which began as a mail ripple in the stream of seventeenth-centwy thought, had grown to tidd wave proportions. .. .Physicists investigated dead things and physicians sought clockworks in 1iWig people. (46) The model of mechanical materialism dominated how the Iaws of the world were viewed; indeed, it was not until the twentieth century that this mode1 was challenged. This understanding of the world affected the creation of similar world-views, and, in turn, Newton's deterministic models and experimental rnethod are reflected in some of the dramas that evolved out of Newtonian ideas. Entering into a feedback loop, Newtonianism affecteci modek such as Darwin's, which then influenced nahdist theories of dramatic creation, such as Zola's, In naturalism, neo-Aristotelian hear structure was idealised; plays were constructed around a leading character with which the audience should empathise, who is led through exposition, complication, reversal, and resolutionldenouement This structure reflected the Newtonian modeîiïng of the world, upholding continuity and Iinear throughlines of cause-and-eEectt According to J. L. Styan, the "scÏentifÏc natudi&' focused on the repercussio~~~ofheredity and mvÏronment, and akhough their characiers were intended to represmt reai people in real situations, they often became representatives for their class or sex. The emphasis on heredity and environment echoes the Newtonian focus on discoverhg originary causes and tracing the paths of cause-and-effect to find the equal end result. Within a Newtonian world-view, the use of "scientinc objectivltf' (Styan 6) codd onIy imbue the world of the drama with a validation of its cMty." These "scientifÏc" focuses are encapsulated in the ideas of EdeZola, who wrote: It seems impossible that the movement of inquùy and anaIysis which is precisely the movement of the nineteenth century, cm have revolutionized al1 the sciences and arts and Ieft dramatic art to one side, as if isolated. The natural sciences date fkom the end of the 1stcenhiry; chemistry and physics are less than a hundred years old; history and criticisn have been renovated, vhaily recreated since the Revolution; an entire world has arisen; it has sent us back to the study of documents, to expenence, made us realize that to start &eh we must fbt take things back to the beginning¶become familiar with mm and nature, verify what is. Thenceforward, the great naturalistic school, which has spread secretly, irrevocabIy, often making its way in darkness but always