The Immobility of Power in British Political Theatre after 2000: Absurdist Dystopias

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Merle Tönnies
Keyword(s):  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
New Labour ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Theatre ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Abstract Representations ◽  
Theatre Of The Absurd ◽  
Distribution Of Power

AbstractThe paper focuses on the twenty-first-century resurgence of political concerns in British theatre, in the traditional (post-1950s) sense of criticising the unequal distribution of power in society. A key approach combines the seemingly incompatible genre characteristics of dystopia and the Theatre of the Absurd to foreground immobility, and two representative cases of such absurdist dystopias are studied in detail: Mark Ravenhill'sMobility is denied in a number of respects in these works: In contrast to earlier political theatre in Britain, the unjust hierarchies are not portrayed as changeable, and audiences are pointedly not supposed to be ‘moved’ by any clear-cut messages either. Moreover, the system representatives and their domestic relationships are shown to become increasingly static through the corrupting force of power, both literally and metaphorically. On the whole, these curiously abstract representations result in claustrophobic scenes, which can have profound indirect effects on the spectators. As the plays also allude to the developments in political discourse from New Labour onwards, the pervasive immobility on stage can at the same time be read as obliquely mocking the recurrent insistence on ‘change’ in the rhetoric of all major parties in Britain.

Doing Things with Legal History

2018 ◽  
pp. 922-940
Author(s):  
Alfred L. Brophy
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
First Century ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Alternative Vision ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Support Property ◽  
Late Twentieth

This chapter discusses the role of historical analysis in property law. The history of property has been used to offer support for property rights. Their long history makes the distribution of property look normal, indeed natural and something that cannot or should not be challenged. However, historically in the U.S there have been competing visions of property. From the Progressive era onward especially, the history of property has been used to show the unequal distribution of property and to offer an alternative vision that expands the rights of non-owners of property. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the history of opposition to feudalism and protection of the rights of non-owners was used to protect the rights of non-owners. Thus, the history of property has been a tool of judges and legislators to support property rights and it has also been, less frequently, a tool of critique.

The Great Classical Tradition, 3

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Jeremy Bentham ◽  
Pronounced Difference ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Low Wages

This chapter examines the ideas elaborated specifically in the refinement and defense of the classical tradition in economics. There were points of vulnerability and fault that required a defense of the classical tradition, including the pronounced difference between the wages and resulting living standard of the workers and those of the employers or capitalists, the unequal distribution of power inherent in the system, and the phenomenon referred to as a panic, crisis, depression or recession, with its associated unemployment and general despair. The chapter considers how the classical tradition dealt with inequality and oppressive power, focusing on the initial defense advanced for the low wages of the laborer in comparison with the revenues of the employer and landlord. It also discusses the defense from Utilitarianism, led by Jeremy Bentham, and the views of John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Nassau Senior, and William Stanley Jevons.

First Contact, March–May 1864

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-270
Author(s):  
Brian Holden Reid
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Operational Level ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Military ◽  
First Contact ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Way

This chapter details how the year 1864 allowed William T. Sherman to operate for the first time not as a subordinate commander but as director of a series of armies in the field. His contribution to overall Union strategy would be significant and thus he began to exercise command at the level military analysts currently refer to as the operational level of war. Such a level links tactics and methods of fighting with strategy, in the overall scheme. It defines the manner in which armies organize in discrete campaigns and seek to fulfill the object of strategy by winning victories. Sherman’s performance overall needs to be considered by taking all aspects into account. As he began to work at the higher levels of the military art, he began to change the way in which people think and talk about war, and he propounded an individual philosophy of war. The higher he progressed, the more Sherman could not avoid confronting the harsh realities of political life, for his campaigns increasingly had an impact not just on American political discourse but indeed in 1864 on the outcome of the presidential election. Sherman expressed clear-cut political views and expounded them perhaps too forcefully. This complex mix worked as a catalyst in developing his ideas about war and his ability to put them into practice.

scholarly journals Water, sanitation and hygiene for homeless people

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayed Mohammad Nazim Uddin ◽  
Vicky Walters ◽  
J. C. Gaillard ◽  
Sanjida Marium Hridi ◽  
Alice McSherry
Keyword(s):  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Short Communication ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Scoping Study ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Sanitation And Hygiene ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The Right

This short communication provides insights into water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for homeless people through a scoping study conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It investigates homeless access to WASH through the lens of a rights-based approach. It demonstrates that homeless people's denial of their right to WASH reflects their marginal position in society and an unequal distribution of power and opportunities. The study ultimately suggests a rights-based approach to work toward dealing with the root causes of discrimination and marginalisation rather than just the symptoms. For the homeless, who not only lack substantive rights, but also the means through which to claim their rights, an integrated rights-based approach to WASH offers the possibility for social inclusion and significant improvements in their life conditions. Given the unique deprivation of homelessness it is argued that in addressing the lack of access to adequate WASH for homeless people the immediate goal should be the fulfilment and protection of the right to adequate shelter.

scholarly journals Discourse and Power Relations: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Pakistani Talk Show

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
Nayab Iqbal ◽  
Kaukab Abid Azhar ◽  
Zubair Ahmed Shah
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Talk Shows ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Talk Show ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The One

The paper aims at studying the ways power and inequality are enacted in a Pakistani talk show aired on Capital TV on 14th August 2019. The research primarily focused on analyzing turn-taking patterns of the discussion held between the host of the program and three guests. The analysis revealed the unequal distribution of turns implying the unequal distribution of power between the host and guests as well as between the guests. The host of the program through her discourse asserted power as she was the one to control the topic of discussion throughout the program. Her power can be attributed to the power of media. Besides, one of the guest speakers, Jawwad asserted his power through his knowledge. The female speaker did not have enough representation and was not given enough chance to share her views, therefore, it can be concluded that gender was another element that played an important part in forming the power relations in the discussion that was observed.Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse Power Relations, Media Discourse and Talk Shows, Turn-taking

scholarly journals Interpreting New Labour's Political Discourse on the Northern Ireland Peace Process

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Irish Question

New Labour‟s superintendence of the Northern Ireland peace process has re-opened debate about the party‟s stance on the “Irish question”. While some commentators hold the view that it remains ideologically wedded to the nationalist goal of Irish unity, it could be argued that Labour‟s Northern Ireland policy has been characterised by an ambivalent non-interventionist approach. The “peace strategy” pursued by Tony Blair‟s three administrations between 1997 and 2007 is examined in light of the political discourse articulated by key actors within New Labour itself. Moreover, the interpretive approach in British political science is utilised to illuminate key variables, such as ideology and values, driving the party‟s view on sovereignty in the United Kingdom more broadly. In applying this analytical framework the article explains how New Labour‟s policy towards Northern Ireland underwent significant adaptation under Blair‟s leadership and why it finally achieved its overarching objective of consigning the violent conflict to atrophy.

Between Gaia and Ground

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Povinelli
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
The West ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Colonial Histories ◽  
Distribution Of Power

In Between Gaia and Ground Elizabeth A. Povinelli theorizes the climatic, environmental, viral, and social catastrophe present as an ancestral catastrophe through which that Indigenous and colonized peoples have been suffering for centuries. In this way, the violence and philosophies the West relies on now threaten the West itself. Engaging with the work of Glissant, Deleuze and Guattari, Césaire, and Arendt, Povinelli highlights four axioms of existence—the entanglement of existence, the unequal distribution of power, the collapse of the event as essential to political thought, and the legacies of racial and colonial histories. She traces these axioms' inspiration in anticolonial struggles against the dispossession and extraction that have ruined the lived conditions for many on the planet. By examining the dynamic and unfolding forms of late liberal violence, Povinelli attends to a vital set of questions about changing environmental conditions, the legacies of violence, and the limits of inherited Western social theory. Between Gaia and Ground also includes a glossary of the keywords and concepts that Povinelli has developed throughout her work.

Necropolitical metamorphoses

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-69
Author(s):  
Sang-Keun Yoo
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Environmental Toxicity ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Distribution Of Power

This article analyses and compares two films by South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho: his 2006 sf film Gwoemul (The Host; South Korea 2006) and his most recent film Gisaengchung (Parasite; South Korea 2019). I interpret these two films through the lens of outbreak narrative and socio-environmentalism. I argue the films foreground the way each class has a different power and ability to defend itself against environmental toxicity, even though our bodies share the same porosity to it. The films show that with the unequal distribution of power and wealth, the rich and necropolitical nation-states use outbreak narrative to (re)constitute communities based on class lines, drawing imaginary lines between them. As a fictionalised enemy, poor communities are pushed away to uninhabitable places - the exceptional places made for emergencies. Bong shows that those pushed away to live minimal lives metamorphosise into parasites in the mental, behavioural and somatic senses, and further demonstrates that the current economic and political conditions offer no possibilities of solidarity. The paper concludes that his films demand that humanities scholars rethink our approach to environmentalist discourses, reminding our audiences that environmental justice for the poor can never be achieved without changing the necropolitical system of politics and economics.

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