Long Development Questions - English and American Drama II PDF

Long-development-questions-Teatr... NssTaylor Teatro Inglés y Norteamericano II 3º Grado en Estudios Ingleses Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Universidad de Cádiz Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la exp...

Long-development-questions-Teatr... NssTaylor Teatro Inglés y Norteamericano II 3º Grado en Estudios Ingleses Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Universidad de Cádiz Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. POSSIBLE LONG DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS FOR EXAM 1. EXPRESSIONISM IN DRAMA Around the year 1910 took place in the occidental world a new tradition, namely the tradition of the modern age. The term expressionism comprises only one aspect of this modern revolution in art and literature. It was first applied to painting and was coined by the French painter Hervé in 1901. The expressionist wanted to produce and make vivid his very own reality, his inner idea of vision, of what he saw. To him it did not make sense just to create an imitation of the world and, consequently, he disapproved of any realistic style. The term was soon shared by the other art forms and soon applied to drama. The new style spread sporadically through Europe and found its way to America being adopted by Rice, Wilder, Williams, and, above all, by Eugene O’Neill. In its earlier stages, expressionistic drama was a dramatization of the subconscious and the rational development of the plot were almost lost. Apart from becoming formless, the expressionists’ interest in subjective ideas forced authors to create specific dramaturgical techniques that distorted reality and formed a world of dream images. The atmosphere was often dreamlike and nightmarish and the dream effect was also aided by placing pauses or silence of unusual length in midst of dialogues of monologues. Settings were no longer realized in a detailed way as they used to be in the naturalistic drama. Simplification was emphasized, and images had more a symbolical than a photographical character. Also, directors and their scenic and lighting designers had now the opportunity for creative experiment which any production of a realistic drama had not allowed. The structure of the play was split into a lot of episodic scenes which were arranged in very fast, almost fil-like, sequence. Nevertheless, its coherence was retained by the connecting force of the dream construct. Characters lost their individuality and were reduced to types and caricatures. In order to bring out the essential of man, he was stripped of all surface features. They often represented social groups rather than particular people and were depicted in an unreal, exaggerated way. Additionally, avoiding the detail of human behaviour, the player often overacted and tried to adopt the mechanical and broad movements of a puppet The dialogue had often an abbreviated style or was made up of short phrases. It could also appear in the form of long monologues sometimes being highly (or ironically) poetic or lyrical. Or it was placed by sound effects or music in order to support certain moods. 2. EXPRESSIONISM IN O’NEILL’S HAIRY APE Originally referred to painting, popularized by the French painter Hervé, it was further developed by German artists in the 1920s and soon included drama as one of its “expressions”. Expressionist drama felt no commitment to the depiction of everyday life reality; it was subjective and arbitrary. Dramatic unities are discarded, the narrative line frequently being a series of stations rather than well-knit plot. Grammar is violated and sentences collapse; sudden lyrical outbursts; speech becomes a cry. Stage design reveals the close link between drama and the visual arts. 1 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. Sets become simplified, angled, distorted, fantasized. Stage is conceived as a space. Spotlights create acting areas and shifted the focus from one spot to another. O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape caused a lot of misunderstanding among the critics. Because of O’Neill’s very obvious criticism of the capitalist society, people were highly irritated by the form of expression. Dealing with such a theme, a realistic presentation was expected. Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. The structure of the play has a circle-like form. Regarding this, it becomes obvious that O’Neill uses rapidly moving short scenes. In this way, the action receives a dynamic flow and the confusion inside Yank’s mind is intensified. In his stage directions for the first scene, O’Neill already makes clear that the settings are intended to be fully expressionistic. Furthermore, O’Neill creates a nightmarish atmosphere by using dark and gloomy images. Instead of being descriptive these images involve and imply a simile: the shouting stokers are described in terms of furious beasts; they resemble the appearance of Neanderthal Man. In addition, the unpleasant atmosphere is intensified by employing almost alienated noises and sounds. O’Neill describes the worker shovelling in rhythmic motion. Another feature of expressionism included in the play is the use of monologues and soliloquies. Characters are typified, symbolic and an exaggerated caricature. In the play, Yank is the typified character and Mildred’s aunt is a caricature character. On the other hand, Mildred is a symbol of bourgeois class and Yank of working class because Expressionism also uses symbols which in The Hairy Ape are ape and steel. Expressionism also deals with alienated character. Yank is alone after Fifth Avenue, where people act like robots with a predefined phrase of “beg your pardon”, what is an example of the use of mechanical movements in expressionism. Finally, the last expressionistic feature included in The Hairy Ape is the tragic ending for the main character: Yank’s death in a steel cage makes the symbolism of the play complete. 3. DOMESTIC REALISM IN AMERICAN DRAMA In the fifteen years following the WWII, the next generation of American playwrights built on psychological dramas of earlier writers to carry American theatre to its highest accomplishments. The concentration was one explaining and eliminating the emotions that lay beneath both normal and abnormal behaviour. For some of the best American dramatists the subject to be dramatized was their characters’ s spiritual and psychic adventure. They discovered that it felt so frightening that even their most successfully functioning characters were actually being driven by feelings of inadequacy or inability to cope with the ordinary pains and pressures of life. Plays that dramatized this insight (inability) could give the audience sort of comfort in the demonstration that such insecurities were not individuals failings but part of the human condition. A play is an imitation of an action, though sometimes the action is so compelling that for several hours we believe that the action on stage is really happening in real life. The illusion that real life has been created on stage is the staple of many movies and TV dramas and is what most people think of as going to see a play. 2 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago Teatro Inglés y Norteamerica... Banco de apuntes de la a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. The lives of ordinary middle class people in real houses in real time is the stuff of realistic drama. What playwrights do is simply foreshorten everything and rearrange a few details so something dramatic and exciting unfolds right away. Even dialog is changed; dialog is actually very contrived. Realism as a dramatic art form dates from the late 19th century, specifically with the plays of Henrik Ibsen like A Doll’s House or Hedda Gabler. Almost all theater before Ibsen was non- Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. realistic. Romance and melodrama with spectacular scenery and heroes and heroines more noble, handsome and overreaching, was not realistic. Ibsen wanted to address the life and the concerns of ordinary middle class citizens who where quickly becoming the majority class politically and economically. There was no longer a need to see kings and queens or aristocrats on stage. Besides a realistic set, common dialogue and motivated action, Ibsen wanted to make the stage a vehicle for the discussion of modern-day problems (death penalty, abortion, women’s liberation, political corruption). In Death of a Salesman, for example, Miller achieved a high level of linguistic realism with his character’s speech style. Willy’s schizophrenic nature is staged on two levels: the psychological and the social. His frequent inconsistencies and his deceits indicate the disparity between both. 4. DOMESTIC REALISM IN DEATH OF A SALESMAN. ARTHUR MILLER The life of ordinary middle-class people in real houses in real time is the stuff of realistic drama. Its function and capacity were expanded to include spiritual content and purpose in plays that not clearly explained or argued, but actually offered counsel, consolation and reassurance. Realism as a dramatic form dates from the late 19th C, specifically with Henrik Ibsen’s plays: A Doll’s House or Hedda Gabler. Almost all theatre before him was non-realistic, so Ibsen wanted to address the life and concerns of ordinary middle-class citizens who were quickly becoming the majority class politically and economically. There was no longer a need to see kings and Queens or aristocrats on stage. Death of a Salesman is realistic on many levels. To start with, much of the action takes place in the Loman home and Willy’s dysfunctional family is familiar and “real” enough and so are the language, props and clothes. But in the midst of a realistic illusion, Arthur Miller purposely breaks the illusion of complete realism in order to dramatize Willy’s psychological state of mind whose schizophrenic nature is staged on two levels: the psychological and the social. In this play, Willy is an ordinary person placed under extraordinary pressure by his society and he is destroyed by it. This way, domestic realism can be seen reflected on the characters of the play, since they are common characters with common problems. In fact, Willy’s sons Happy, a sales clerk, and Biff, farm worker, represent the segment of the American workforce, which were the lowest-paid in America during that time. Language is also important in the play. According to Miller, “the language of the family is the language of the private life”. In Death of a Salesman, dialogues between the family members are full of expressions that really reflect the relation that is expected, words like “honey” or “darling”. This way, Miller achieved a high level of linguistic realism with his character’s speech style. 3 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. Finally, clothes are also important. In order to highlight the normality of the situation, characters are wearing clothes which are not out of place at all, since Willy is “dressed quietly” and Linda “puts on a robe” the first time they appear. Moreover, the boys are wearing pyjamas, what seems to be the appropriate thing having on account that they are on bed. Furthermore, we must also mention the props that appear on the play, like the stockings, which represent the economic situation in America at that time. 5. DOMESTIC REALISM IN BURIED CHILD Domestic realism deals with the life of ordinary middle class people in real houses in real time. In that sense, we can argue that Buried Child is a realistic play. However, it is also full of elements which make it a strange and unexpected play. To start with, the play takes place in an isolated farm and tells the story of a family, what is quite realistic. Furthermore, there are elements like props which give the play a more authentic character, as the couch or the baseball cap, which are everyday objects common in any American family. However, all these realistic elements are opposed to other aspects which do not make the play realistic at all. To start with, the main character, Dodge, is the head of the family. On the other hand, that is what he does all day: sitting on the sofa watching TV and drinking whisky. Dodge talks about: family, the farm, even baseball; Thigs that American patriarchs are supposed to talk about but he is not the loving father. He considers himself to be dead already, his life is far from being active. And to make matters worse, he killed the child, and buried him in the yard. At the beginning of the play, Halie seems to be a great wife and a perfect mother, someone who cares about her husband and her family among everything. Then we see that she is carrying on an affair and that she committed incest. Tilden was an All-American football player which was supposed to do great things, but now he is penniless and mentally unstable. Bradley is the second son of Dodge and Halie, who has lost his leg, intimidates Shelly and shows constantly how coward he is. Vince is a sort of prodigal son figure in the play: he comes back home with his girlfriend to present her to his family. However, the family does not recognize him. At the end of the play, Vince decides to “carry on the line”, and occupies Dodge’s position on the sofa. In conclusion, Buried Child, except for the magical elements is wholly realistic in style; its characters may be odd, but they could exist. The play contains all the essential elements of a well-made, realistic drama, including a naturalistic set, meant to represent a decaying, middle- class American living room; psychologically real, motivated characters and a fatal secret hidden in the past and revealed gradually by exposition and character discoveries. 6. MILLER’S CONCEPT OF MODERN TRAGEDY The Greek philosopher Aristotle first define tragedy as when bad stuff happens to good people who kind of deserve it. According to Miller, few tragedies are written in this age and for one reason or another, we are often holding to be below tragedy. So, tragic mode is archaic, fit only for the very highly placed. Miller believes that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were. Where the question of tragedy in art is not at issue, we never hesitate to attribute to the well- placed and the exalted the very same mental processes as the slowly. If the exaltation of tragic 4 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. action were truly a property of the high-bred character alone, it is inconceivable that the mass of mankind should cherish tragedy above all other forms, let alone be capable of understanding it. The tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing – his sense of personal dignity. The underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his “rightful” position in society. Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. Tragedy is the consequence of man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly. The tale always reveals what has been called his “tragic flaw”, a failing that is not peculiar to grand or elevated characters. The flaw in the characters is really nothing – and need be nothing, but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status. Only the passive, only those who accept their lost without active retaliation, are “flawless”. No tragedy can come about when its author fears to question absolutely everything, when he regards any institution, habit or custom as being either everlasting, immutable or inevitable. There is a misconception of tragedy: the idea that tragedy is of necessity allied to pessimism. On the contrary, in truth tragedy implies more optimism in its author than does comedy. The possibility of victory must be there in tragedy. Pathos truly is the mode for the pessimist. Where pathos rules, a character has fought a battle he could not possibly have won. The pathetic is achieved when the protagonist is incapable of grappling with a much superior force. But tragedy requires a nicer balance between what is possible and what is impossible. In tragedies lies the belief-optimistic in the perfectibility of man. 7. TRAGEDY IN DEATH OF A SALESMAN The Greek philosopher Aristotle first define tragedy as when bad stuff happens to good people who kind of deserve it. Although Miller has described Death of a Salesman as a modern tragedy, it can also be a classic tragedy. The main aspect that it has in common with classical tragedy is the external conflict, a confrontation between Willy and his son Biff. The play has also other aspects in common with classical tragedies. To start, Willy cannot be considered a tragic hero properly because he is not seen as superior by the audience. He tries uselessly to achieve his goal without results. As he cannot be seen as a tragic hero; the play lacks the reversal of fortune or Peripeteia. There are other elements of tragedy that can be easily found. Willy is not perfect at all, in fact the playwright presents his Hamartia with the conversations between him and Ben. It is in the first act when we can perceive the anagnorisis. Willy realizes that his decisions have not taken him for a good way. The play evokes the audience’s emotions through catharsis at the end of act two and in the epilogue when Willy commits suicide in order to let his family to earn the money. Furthermore, the moment in which Linda asks why has not come anyone to the funeral and when she points out that they had finally ended paying all the payments, makes the audience feel pity about the characters. Finally, social order is restored. 5 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. Death of a Salesman also follows the structure of a classical tragedy. First, there is an exposition of the positions and relationships between the characters. Then the conflict is present through the exciting force, which is Willy’s son Biff, who is the opposing character and both of them are constantly arguing. The rising action is composed by a series of events which lead to the climax. Willy is fired from Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. work; his sons leave him alone in a restaurant and his conversations with Ben helps him to see the reality: how much his dream has failed. All these events take the play to its climax: the argument between Willy and Biff, where Biff is tired of Willy’s incapacity of seeing things they are. Finally, the falling action takes place after Willy and Biff’s argument, when Willy realizes how much Biff loves him. Then, as well as the conversation with Ben, take play to the catastrophe, finally, Willy decides to commit suicide and crashes his car. Willy & Biff Climax Willy & Biff’s argument Expo of charac. Willy’s suicide Exposition Conflict Catastrophe/denouement Willy is fired Rising action Falling action Willy realizes Biff’s love. 8. AMERICAN DREAM IN ARTHUR MILLER’S DEATH OF A SALESMAN The American Dream can be described as a belief in freedom that allows all citizens and residents of the United States to achieve their goals in life through hard work. Central to the dream was the presence of the American land, along with the question of how to deal with nature and how to live with other people. The American Dream is deep rooted in the concepts found in liberal thought. It is an American adaptation of the norm of private property as a means of liberty, ultimately bringing happiness to the individuals. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy tries to realize what he views as the American Dream, the “self-made man” who rises out of poverty and becomes rich and famous. Willy would have begun his career as a salesman in the 1920s, when belief that salesman adept at manipulation and “people skills” were destined for wealth and fame was widespread. However, by the late 1940s, when Death of a Salesman takes place, the job market and prevailing belief has changed and salesmen required specialized knowledge and training in order to succeed. Because he lacks such knowledge or training. Willy is destined to fail in a business world: Willy does not realize how things have changed. According to Willy’s version of the American Dream, he is a complete failure. The three elements of the American Dream are upward mobility, home ownership and equality, and the three of them can be related to Death of a Salesman. To start with, upward mobility was measured by the economic self-sufficiency and a secure and esteemed profession. In Death of a Salesman, willy does the best he can to succeed on his business. However, he does not have the people skills needed and he constantly fails. That is why he does not have economic self-sufficiency and he is constantly asking money. 6 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. On the other hand, purchasing a house is perhaps the most important investment many Americans will make. However, Willy has not even finished paying his own house. Ironically, he commits suicide precisely the day that he would finish paying the house. Finally, equality means that America is the land of equal opportunity, freedom to vote, to speak and worship. Willy himself is desperate to achieve even a small measure of the success to which he has always aspired. The play makes, finally, no judgement on America, although Miller seems to be telling us that America is a nightmare, a cause for tragedy. 9. AMERICAN DREAM IN SAM SHEPARD’S BURIED CHILD It can be described as a belief in freedom that allows all citizens and residents of the United States of America to achieve their goals in life through hard work. The three elements of the American Dream are upward mobility, home ownership and equality. Central to the dream was the presence of the American land, along with the question how to deal with nature and how to live with other people on the land. The American Dream contains elements of adventure, the exploration of far frontiers and family and financial success. Shepard presents disintegration of the American family and suggests that Americans have an embarrassment of riches and paucity of spiritually and morality. His view of America is one of selfish, brutal and hypocritical wannabees interested in physical pleasure and power. Dodge talks about things that American patriarchs are supposed to talk about: family, the farm, even baseball. But he is not the loving father who knows best. Halie is not better; she preaches morality while she is carrying on an affair with father Dewis and committed incest. Vince’s experience is a reminder of the interconnectedness of individuals, families, and whole communities in America and lends the play’s climax a faint glimmer of hope. Shepard presents American intimacy decayed by rootlessness and it takes the form of a homecoming. Vince comes home after six years and finds a house of the dying, full of grotesque clinging to guilty secrets. The family is held together by the memory of the past, and nobody looks toward the future. Dodge’s condition and his past actions have left everyone else physically and emotionally scarred. The buried child was produced through an incestuous relationship, the complete antithesis of the traditional moral, American family. Tilden is half crazy, there is a brutal uncle, Bradley, who has lost a leg and, by the time the visit is over, Shelly has been insulted, assaulted, and generally abused. Regarding to Vince, his relatives don’t remember him and ignore him or send him for whisky. Dodge, the fierce, dying grandfather who is the shattered heart of his American household, has no use for progeny or for any future. The future is meaningless to him and the past is even more meaningless. Shepard’s America has poisoned its roots and destroyed its life. This American family is not the happy, well-balanced stereotype portrayed in popular media. There is the sense that this family, and America as a whole, may revitalize itself, stir from the ashes of moral destruction, and rise, Phoenix-like, to ascend again. 10. AMERICAN DREAM IN KUSHNER’S ANGELS IN AMERICA The American Dream can be described as a belief in freedom that allows all citizens and residents of the United States to achieve their goals in life through hard work. Central to the 7 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. dream was the presence of the American land, along with the question of how to deal with nature and how to live with other people. The American Dream is deep rooted in the concepts found in liberal thought. It is an American adaptation of the norm of private property as a means of liberty, ultimately bringing happiness to the individuals. Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. Kushner suggests that Angels in America is “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes”, where the concept of America and its social dynamics, political identity, and uncertain future are prominent themes in the play. It is set in the 1980s and explores the impact of Republican politics on the country. In it, the concept of the American Dream is viewed from several perspectives, none of which is presented as “right”. On the one hand, Roy Cohn and Martin find the American Dream in the struggle for political power. Cohn threatens people to get what he wants, both in and out of the courtroom; he is fighting for his professional status and his life. In spite of his efforts, the New York Bar Association revokes his license to practice law because of his unethical behaviour. Therefore, his “American Dream” fails. Hannah left her comfortable Mormon life in Salt Lake City and migrated to a new land. Joe harbours an idealistic vision of America as a land of freedom, opportunity and justice. He faces a tremendous crisis of conscience: he must decide if he can leave his wife and work for a man as unethical as Roy Cohn. He is a good heart man, who tries to have a good impression of the world, and therefore, of America. Finally, America is the land of equal opportunity. However, Prior, Belize and Louis scorned by mainstream society for their openly gay lifestyle, find America oppressive. They remain magical members of society, still misunderstood, mistreated and struggling for their rights. Prior knows his story is the beginning for homosexuals with AIDS in America. Belize is a former drag queen and Louis is a semi-closeted homosexual who desperately searches for meaning of life and continually finds confusion and disappointment. In the epilogue “Bethesda”, the survivors around Bethesda Fountain in Central Park are both champions and victims of the American Dream. 11. BARAKA’S CONCEPT OF REVOLUTIONARY THEATER According to Baraka, the Revolutionary Theatre should force change, it should be change. It shows up the insides of these humans looking into black skulls. White men will cower/cringe before this theatre because it hates them. The Revolutionary Theatre must hate white people who hate, those who are racist, for hating and presuming with their technology to deny the supremacy of the Spirit. The Revolutionary Theatre must teach them to attend to the mad cries of the poor. It must Accuse and Attack anything that can be accused and attacked, because it is the theatre of victims. This kind of theatre must be anti-Western, that is, it must show horrible coming attractions. This theatre should make dreams come true. It should separate the ritual and historical eyeless from reality as a political theatre. It should serve as an example to people who do not respect others. 8 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. On Baraka’s words: “This should be a theatre of World Spirit”, the spirit can be shown to be the most competent force in the world. This theatre will show victims, this way, those in the audience will identify with them and will understands that they are brothers of victims and they themselves are victims too, so it must cause the blood to rush. It is necessary to draw attention to others moved to actual life understanding of what the world is, and what it ought to be. From Baraka’s point of view, the imagination is a practical vector from the soul. It has the Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. capacity of staring and can be information called on to solve all our “problems”. The popular white man’s theatre like the popular white man’s novel shows tired white lives, and the problems of eating whatever they want (because they can afford it). People believe they are happy all the time. Most white Western artist (fascists) are in complete sympathy with the most repressive social forces in the world in that epoch. Americans will hate the Revolutionary Theatre because it will be put to destroy them and whatever they believe is real. American police forces will try to close the theatres. The Revolutionary Theatre, which is now peopled with victims, will soon begin to be peopled with new kinds of heroes… not the weak. These kinds of plays will mean/suppose “The Destruction Of America”. 12. DUTCHMAN AS REVOLUTIONARY THEATER IN THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT Dutchman is an investigation of the African American condition reacting to the exigencies of a very real situation. Dutchman explores the very contentious issue of violence between races, and does so from the perspective of a subaltern class. Dutchman is both an examination of the revolutionary individual and the struggles that are intrinsic to that condition, while also being in itself and attempt at cultural and political resistance. The title of the play refers to the legendary “Flying Dutchman” a ship of the dead that is believed to haunt the seas. The subway car of the play is a representation of such a ghost ship, where a young black man is murderer, it is a “ghostly incarnation of racist fantasies”. But it hints of inherent racism are clear from the very beginning of the play assuming the misconception of black sexual obsession with a white woman. Lula’s character is manipulative and controlling throughout the play, a reflection on the kind of control that the Black Arts Movement were rebelling against during this revolutionary phase in African American theatre. It is the relationship between these two characters that the play’s revolutionary message begins to take form. Baraka makes time within the play circular, beginning and ending with the same motifs. In the beginning, Lula exclaims that the handbag she carries contains “too much weight”. Lula is a metaphorical avatar of white guilt, anger and violence, the historic responsibility and guilt of white culture. Lula’s mission is to wrestle from Clay the violent truth of his existence. She mocks, insults and provokes Clay as a means to distil from him what he could never affirm in the public realm; his revolutionary potential. Clay is finally pushed to his limits and forced to vocally affirm his own revolutionary tendencies, and it is also with his final monologue that Dutchman becomes a modern work of revolutionary art. The decision that he must make is to realize his potential and affirm his power, and so in the end commit revolutionary violence, or to not act all and accept death at the hands of Lula. It is with the realization that the modern Black man has the power to challenge the dominant hegemony, and the shocking murder of Clay at the hands of white culture, cutting short such a 9 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. revelation, that the revolutionary project takes its final from in Dutchman. The Black subject must act within their situation, or face death. 13. BURIED CHILD AS A POSTMODERNIST PLAY Postmodernism is a continuation of modernist view; it is a reaction to modernism; Postmodernism are cultural formations that accompany specific stages of capitalism. It is written by victors, it has cultural pluralism, it alternates families, it is hyper-realistic and Niches; small group identity. The first impression of Buried Child that “it has no sense; it is weird” is an element. The characters suffer from a lack of sustained unity to keep them together. Unlike the unified and coherent figures of modern dramas, Shepard seems to portray his character as voids. The Postmodern focus is evident within the characterizations that Shepard offers. The family life that Dodge and Hallie have created is far from the generational embrace of traditional roles and reverential positions. Shepard’s treatment of Dodge is Postmodern, criticizing the idea of the patriarch who guides his family with the utmost of emotional sincerity. Buried Child demonstrates a degree of language fragmentation that is one of the prominent aspects of postmodernist aesthetic production. In the course of the play most of the character are unwilling to say anything, but at the same time they need to talk. The setting. The tradition landscape of the rural and passional condition is critiqued by showing a decaying farm where nothing grows. The idea that the land is barren is a Postmodern critique regarding the rural setting, one that traditionally has been as enriching and fulfilling. “Loss of the real”. Required to keep the secret for so many years, the family, in fact, has come to believe that there has never been a secret to keep untold; Ansel. The Lyotardian postmodern concept of the breakdown of the master narratives is constant preoccupation in Buried Child. Religion and Christianity and the Enlightenment. Many moments in the play have nothing connected with logic, as the moment Vince is throwing bottles against the window or Bradley out his fingers in Shelly’s mouth. Buried Child is full of binaries, past/present, creation/destruction. For example, the past is continually mentioned throughout the play, and it serves as contrast with the present. Shepard’s play is full of contradictions; the fragmentary images of the play never make sense, and the language does not fill in the gaps and brings about more ambiguity. In postmodern plays endings are both open and closed because they are either multiple or circular. In Buried Child, the end of the play is circular: Vince appears to occupy Dodge’s position as the head of the family, it is like if everything started again. 14. BRECHT’S CONCEPT OF EPIC DRAMA Bertolt Brecht believed that Theater should make people think. It should not be merely for entertainment. The audience and the actors should not get so emotionally involved or they will not learn anything. Through Epic Theatre, Brecht was not providing truth but opinions. 10 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. Epic Theater is the antithesis of Dramatic/Naturalistic theatre. It wants the audience to be critical observers questioning what is happening on stage, realizing the characters are actors and that the stage world is not attempting to pretend to be real. In epic theatre, the human being is alterable and it is a means for social change, so the spectator is forced to face and see man as a process. Brecht’s actors to portray a particular mode of mimesis on stage, that is not just mirroring but Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. measuring; it involves some kind of attitude on our part and it is not possible to produce a neutral mimesis. Brecht used several techniques, like the montage, to keep his audience alert. By putting the scenes in an unrelated matter, the audience is constantly aware. Gestus was an “attitude” which could be seen acting. The “V effect” literally means to alienate the audience. If the audience are “distanced” they can be objective, critical observers. Brecht wanted to make the incidents represented (on stage) appear strange to the public. These techniques tried to avoid getting too attached. Brecht wants to focus on the meaning of the story and believed that an actor must not feel the emotions of the character. He often had a different actor play the protagonist in the second half of the play, so the audience would not get too attached. It is the story that is important, not the character. Actors would “step-out” of their roles and speak directly to the audience explaining what happens next. They would also speak in the third person to continuously remind the audience that they are actors. To show the mechanism of the stage remind the audience that they are watching a play. Brecht did not want to hide his props, set or lighting. The audience would often see actors get into costume on stage and fourth wall should be broken. Half masks were often used in Brecht’s theater, preventing the audience from empathizing with the character. Lighting was for clarity, so that the audience could see the actors better. Music was vital as part of Brecht’s ideas for Epic theater, musicians were on stage and part of the action. 15. ANGELS IN AMERICA AS EPIC DRAMA Angels in America is built with an epic plot construction. According to Brecht’s concept of Epic Theater, Kushner’s Angels in America is a perfect example of Epic drama, because in it, authors must be their own producers and money is not important. Kushner not just wrote the play, but he also was its producer at the beginning. Furthermore, he wanted the play to be watched completely, for him, paying the ticket was not important. The play’s goal must be to instigate social change. Angels in America is full of social issues like politics, AIDS or religion. An example of the pedagogical rigor of the play would be when Belize and Louis talk about democracy. The visibility of the stage machinery is another aspect of Epic drama. In Angels in America, we find this exposition of technology in the angel’s wings and with Prior’s book at the hospital in Millennium Approaches. 11 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. One of the most important goals of Epic drama is to destroy the theatrical illusion. This is perfectly achieved in Millennium Approaches when Prior’s dream and Harper’s hallucination mix. Another example would be the appearance of Prior’s ancestors. Scenes in Angels in America are both long and short and often overlap each other, occurring on the stage simultaneously. This provides two qualities that are important to epic plots: Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. juxtaposition and contrast. In epic plots, the action may alternate between the plot and subplot, with little connection between the two. The effect of two seemingly unrelated scenes placed next to each other is a juxtaposition of action, characters and ideas, which often produces a contrast that makes the play more meaningful and it amplifies the confusion and agony each man feels and makes it difficult to simply dismiss their actions as heartless. Finally, the most important aspect of the Epic that appears is the V-effect. This aspect can be seen even in the subtitle of the play: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, what reinforces the alienation effect. Another example would be the characters addressing to the audience in the epilogue, breaking the fourth wall or the inclusion of imaginary characters, like Mr. Lies or the Angel. It must also be highlighted that there are actors and addresses which play more than one role. The ultimate fate of the characters is unknown, but the events and emotions that have accrued impart a scene of enormity and importance to the play’s ideas – progress, identity, community and acceptance. 16. KYSHNER’S CONCEPT OF HISTORY AND POLITICS IN ANGELS IN AMERICA According to some critics, when writing Angels in America, Kushner had in mind two influential writers: Bertolt Brecht’s theories on political drama and Walter Benjamin’s ideas on history, specially “Theses on the Philosophy of History”. The playwright employed the Brechtian epic mode and became influenced by the use of multiple points of perspective and a dialectical vision of history. Kushner introduces a different optimized concept of history. In millennium Approaches, some of his characters give their opinion about a disastrous vision of history and its future by recalling the AIDS epidemic, racism and homophobia. In Perestroika, Kushner’s vision becomes more hopeful. We find two conflicting concepts of history: the one held by the angel and the one defended by Prior, who has become a kind of (gay) prophet. On the one hand, the angel of history represents both the lack of the idea of a future and the intolerable situation for a present. The angel simply stares at the catastrophe of the history of human beings and conceives history and time as immobility which will lead to God’s return, because time seems to have stopped in the date of the famous San Francisco earthquake. Prior represents Kushner’s concept of the individual’s mission in history, in that way, Kushner, through Prior’s voice, exposes his concept of history which differs from Benjamin’s “We live past hope”. Kushner’s formulation of history becomes a possible utopia in which desire and hope are its real engines. Kushner seems to establish a kind of neo-Enlightenment approach in his play due to the constant allusions to “progress”, “change”, “modernity” and “motion”. Angels in America rejects stagnation held by reactionary attitudes from religious, social, political and emotional background. 12 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10170475 English and American Drama II Long development questions. The play shows us how different realities make up America in a permanent state of change. The author makes his characters remember their people’s pasts, origins and roots. On the other hand, the author achieves this dialectical relationship by mixing them with one another in stories. Kushner proposes his own vision of American history through social politics. With the image of the angel, the playwright symbolically conveys a utopia both on sexual and social politics in Perestroika. The angel becomes a symbol for the utopian state in which homophobia will be definitely banished and the government’s social politics will be based on forgiveness and peace. Angels in America tries to make sense out of American history on the basis of the American myth of the frontier and the pioneers. 17. ANGELS IN AMERICA AS POLITICAL PLAY The term “political theater” denotes theater used for political purposes, usually as part of a campaign or movement, sometimes as part of the work of a political party. Its usage is often imprecise, overlapping with other terms like alternative, guerrilla or radical theatre. Theatre has been a forum for political ideas and agendas for as long as audiences have been. During the radical 1960s, several black theatre groups such as Amiri Baraka’s Spirit House was organized with the goal of producing plays written by, and for, blacks in America. According to Kushner, all theatre is political, and being politically engaged means doing something instead of imitating what other people do. Political is a realm of conscious intent to enter the world of struggle, change, activism, revolution and growth. For Kushner, theater without private fantasy does not exist. The membrane separating the political and private is permeable. Theater that is explicitly political has to be very entertaining and very well done. Kushner follows in the tradition of large, political dramas, influenced mainly by Bertolt Brecht, who is credited with the creation of Epic Theatre. Brecht wanted his spectators to be active participants and think critically while watching his plays, rather than become absorbed in emotion as passive witnesses. Through this process, Brecht felt, audiences would better understand and appreciate a play’s political messages. Kushner is extremely political: he wants his audience to learn something. In Kushner’s plays the strong political ideas are woven into the fabric of the plot and sub-plots, and the audience is left with an impression rather than an obvious message. Controversial ideas are usually presented from both sides, leaving the audience free to draw their own conclusions. Kushner lets his characters and their philosophies speak for themselves. Common themes emerged and common forms too and most of this theatre was socialist or communist-inspired. By its nature much of the work is ephemeral but it has also had an important effect on the theater world through inspirational practitioners like Brecht. The concept of the American Dream, for example, is viewed from several perspectives, none of which is presented as “right”: Roy and Martin find the American Dream in the struggle for political power; Joe harbours and idealistic vision of America as a land of opportunity; Belize and Louis, on the other hand, find America oppressive. By presenting different political ideas, Kushner opens a political dialogue with his audiences, rather than simply shouting messages at them. 13 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.