A Desacralisation of Violence in Modern British Playwriting A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2014 Amani Alied School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 2 Contents List of Abbreviations 3 List of Figures 4 Abstract 5 Acknowledgements 8 Preface 11 Chapter One 16 Carnival Humour and the Role of the Victim in the Rebirth of a ‘New Order’ Chapter Two 62 Laughter in Persecution Texts: the Victim in the Plays of Peter Barnes and Peter Shaffer Chapter Three 126 Recording Pain - a Continuing Encounter with Laughter in Plays by Howard Barker and Sarah Kane Chapter Four 197 Demythologising Carnival Triumph and Revealing the Bloodline of the Grotesque Feast in Caryl Churchill and David Rudkin Chapter Five 263 Daring to See Within Ourselves Bibliography Word count 81, 007 3 List of Abbreviations I See Satan Fall Like Lightning…………………………………… ISSFLL Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World………………...THSFW Howard Barker, Ecstasy and Death: an Expository Study of his Drama, Theory and Production Work……………………………………………………HBED Howard Barker, Politics and Desire: an Expository Study of his Drama and Poetry………………………………………………………………..HBPD 4 List of Figures 1. Dulle Griet (Dull Gret) ……………………………………………….. 225 2. The Triumph of Death ………………………………………………… 235 5 Abstract My thesis journey was initially motivated by an interest in the individual’s search for God, the self and the other (neighbour, men/women and enemy) as represented in the play texts. This call for a personal relationship with the ‘other’ highlights the individual’s feelings of unease and strangeness at a time when, one might argue, the majority belittles the role of religion, in support of scientific discoveries and human rights. Here, the French philosopher René Girard - whose anthropological and scientific interest in violence, religion and human culture has shaped my research - argues that the progress of humankind would not have become a reality without what he terms sacrifice. Here, I should confirm that the main influence on the early steps of finding my research topic were Peter Shaffer, Slavoj Žižek, Julia Kristeva and Mikhail Bakhtin rather than Rene Girard. This thesis explores several interconnected relationships, the most important of which is between humour and violence or forms of ‘sacrifice’ in the plays of six British playwrights – Peter Barnes and Peter Shaffer, Howard Barker and Sarah Kane as well as Caryl Churchill and David Rudkin. It is this strange relationship which leads me later on to uncover and explore the representations of the stranger, the victim/iser and the foreigner in their works. The return of the stranger – the dead, the ashes of victims of extreme violence, the ghosts, the prisoners and the children - is inseparable from the search for individuality in a world ruled by the gods of war, money and dark humour. My research findings are viewed in the light of two narratives: the first is to do with the upper world and the second is to do with the lower as defined by Bakhtin’s idea of the carnival and the culture of folk humour in the Middle Ages. The upper is serious, official, exclusive and authoritative whereas the second is festive, comic, mythical and popular. It is hard to describe the relationship between these narratives as simply oppositional (some say iconoclastic) because they are coexistent and rely on one another. At this point, the different professional and ideological positions of the playwrights are important aspects in arriving at an understanding of the ways they collapse the borders between humour and terror, the banquet and the battle, carnivals and trials, the parade and economic exploitation, clownery and politics. Though these playwrights are not preachers or reformers, they challenge our easy laughter and our role as we witness the risen from the dead, those in the flames or in the future signalling to us to halt our participation and face responsibility for the victims. 6 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. Copyright Statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or 7 Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=487), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 8 Acknowledgements I wrote this thesis during a time of war, pain and big challenges. It is hard indeed to draw a line between my experience as a war victim and my research. Sometimes I imagine what my research would have been like had there been no war in Syria. Four years ago when this research project was still a dream, I did not know that I share with victims of violence a history of dark humour, and social and political oppression. Here I want to give special thanks to Professor Maggie B. Gale, who read the entire work chapter by chapter, helped me by supplying references and gave me a great deal of time, constructive criticism and warm encouragement. I would particularly like to thank Dr Jenny Hughes for her enthusiasm, advice, critical feedback and careful reading of every chapter. My thanks also go to Dr Rachel Clement for her kind assistance, and valuable and constructive suggestions. I would also like to thank Dr Alison Jeffers, Professor Viv Gardner and Dr David Butler who supported me directly or indirectly during this research journey. My special thanks are extended to Dr John Healey and Elizabeth Healey who read my work and helped me greatly with corrections. I would like to express my very great appreciation to Damascus University, Syria and the Department of English Literature for the scholarship and for their financial support during this difficult and painful journey at a time of war. I also thank my interior supervisor, in the Department of English Literature, Damascus University, Dr Amal Abed El Maula for her help. 9 My grateful thanks go to Adel for his financial support and priceless encouragement without which this research would not have come true. Finally, I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to my father without whom I would not have been able to finish this research. For the last three years of war, economic sanctions and the closure of the Syrian Embassy in London, my father put his life at risk for me and managed to transfer the tuition fees I need from Damascus to Manchester. 10 For Syria, Adnan and Mariam 11 Preface My cultural position as a Syrian is central to the genesis of this thesis. Graduating from Damascus University I received funding for postgraduate study in Manchester. Here, my interest in textual analysis as well as cultural critical theory, rather than performance and the history of productions, stems from my background in literature. My MA dissertation (2010), explored the possibility of love and forgiveness in the face of laughing terror and the need to make peace with ourselves, neighbours and enemies in three plays by Peter Shaffer, and this created the context for my PhD research. The desire to find playwrights similar to Shaffer, who show an interest in the Bible, violence, poetry and imagination, shaped the initial steps of this PhD research. Frustrated by the difficulty of focusing again on Shaffer’s work, I expanded my research to explore a larger group of modern British playwrights – these included John Arden, Samuel Beckett, Edward Bond, Martin Crimp, David Greig, John Osborne, Harold Pinter and Mark Ravenhill as well as Peter Barnes, Howard Barker, Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill, David Rudkin – some of whom are contemporary with Shaffer. Out of this group, I settled on exploring and comparing the work of what some would think of as an odd selection of six playwrights – whom I hope I have placed in productive pairings: Peter Shaffer and Peter Barnes, Sarah Kane and Howard Barker, Caryl Churchill and David Rudkin. This eventual arrangement of my analysis is the outcome of having identified an implicit dialogue across their works which I hope to unpack through these pairings. Despite the playwrights’ different ideological leanings, this dialogue may be seen in terms of language, their uses and understanding of carnival forms of humour within structures of social and political oppressions, and a shared interest in victims of violence.