scholarly journals Dramatic shift: Conservative to Avant-garde in Sarah Kane’s “4.48 Psychosis”

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (28) ◽  
pp. 142-153
Author(s):  
Emmerencia Sih Beh
Keyword(s):  
Life And Death ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Its Analysis ◽  
Suicide Notes ◽  
Sarah Kane ◽  
Dramatic Shift ◽  
Style Of Writing ◽  
Experimental Shift ◽  
Poetic Style

Drama is a genre in literature that recreates not only existing actions but also interprets the different versions of truth put on stage. Sarah Kane, a dramatist, is usually associated with the new theatrical form of writing called the in-yer-face theatre. Kane, after writing her last play, 4.48 Psychosis commits suicide. For this reason, many critics consider this play as a ‘suicide notes’ which makes it limiting since these critics do not pay attention to her extensive use of styles and her experimental shift from conservative to avant-garde dramatic constructions. While her earlier works Blasted, Phaedra’s Love and Cleansed were centred principally on shock irritating violent and relatively hostile metaphors, the style of her two last plays Crave and 4.48 Psychosis shifts blatantly as they are written in a conspicuously poetic style. Her last play which is the focus of this study swings from conventional to unconventional style of writing given that she deviates from the classical presentation of drama. This study uses the theoretical backdrop of Postmodernism for its analysis. The paper demonstrates that analysing 4.48 Psychosis in connection to Kane’s life and death is restrictive and biased as it procures a plethora of innovative scopes.

Ważyk metafizyczny? / Ważyk – A Metaphysician?

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Jerzy Święch
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Self Sufficiency

Summary Adam Ważyk’s last volume of poems Zdarzenia (Events) (1977) can be read as a resume of the an avant-garde artist’s life that culminated in the discovery of a new truth about the human condition. The poems reveal his longing for a belief that human life, the mystery of life and death, makes sense, ie. that one’s existence is subject to the rule of some overarching necessity, opened onto the last things, rather than a plaything of chance. That entails a rejection of the idea of man’s self-sufficiency as an illusion, even though that kind of individual sovereignty was the cornerstone of modernist art. The art of late modernity, it may be noted, was already increasingly aware of the dangers of putting man’s ‘ontological security’ at risk. Ważyk’s last volume exemplifies this tendency although its poems appear to remain within the confines of a Cubist poetics which he himself helped to establish. In fact, however, as our readings of the key poems from Events make clear, he employs his accustomed techniques for a new purpose. The shift of perspective can be described as ‘metaphysical’, not in any strict sense of the word, but rather as a shorthand indicator of the general mood of these poems, filled with events which seem to trap the characters into a supernatural order of things. The author sees that much, even though he does not look with the eye of a man of faith. It may be just a game - and Ważyk was always fond of playing games - but in this one the stakes are higher than ever. Ultimately, this game is about salvation. Ważyk is drawn into it by a longing for the wholeness of things and a dissatisfaction with all forms of mediation, including the Cubist games of deformation and fragmentation of the object. It seems that the key to Ważyk’s late phase is to be found in his disillusionment with the twentieth-century avant-gardes. Especially the poems of Events contain enough clues to suggest that the promise of Cubism and surrealism - which he sought to fuse in his poetic theory and practice - was short-lived and hollow.

scholarly journals Unknown Siberian Poems by Vasily Yan

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-227
Author(s):  
I. V. Prosvetov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Free Verse ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Face ◽  
Poetic Style ◽  
At Home

The first publication of poems by the Soviet writer-historian, 1st degree Stalin Prize laureate Vasily Yan (Yanchevetsky), composed in 1920–1923, when he lived and worked in Siberia. Source – handwritten miscellany “Poems of Wanderings”, recently discovered in the Yanchevetskys’ family archive. The publication is accompanied by detailed biographical comments. In the civil war, V. Yanchevetsky took part on the side of the whites as one of the main propagandists of the Kolchak army – the head of the Informative Department of the Special Chancellery of the Supreme Commander’s Staff, editor of the front newspaper “Vperyod”. After the collapse of the white movement, V. Yanchevetsky had to hide his past, changing occupations and places of residence (Achinsk, Uyuk, Minusinsk). The Siberian po- etic cycle, created at this time, makes it possible to understand not only the mood of the author in the last years of the turning point in Russian history, but also literary searches, and the atmosphere of the time in general. The main themes are homeland, revolution, freedom, atheism, building a new life, preserving the personality in the face of political upheavals. Obviously, the influence on the poetic style of the author of such trends as symbolism and futurism, which he was interested in. In Omsk V. Yanchevetsky closely communicated with the writer, poet and avant-garde artist Anton Sorokin, attended his literary evenings at home. Probably, as a result, some of the Siberian poems were written in free verse, to which V. Yanchevetsky had never used before.

Grotesque As Archetype of Poetic State In The Poetry of Frederik Rreshpa

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (09) ◽  
pp. 728-731
Author(s):  
Hajri Mandri
Keyword(s):  
Literary Work ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Special Point ◽  
National Book ◽  
Style Of Writing ◽  
Poetry Collection ◽  
Poetic Style ◽  
Form Of Expression ◽  
The Grotesque

Frederik Rreshpja, a famous Albanian poet, was born in Shkoder in 1940 and died in 2006. His   first literary work, the poetry collection, "Albanian Rhapsody" was published in 1967. He was imprisoned and served 17 years in prison during the communist regime.After he was released from prison, lived in Tirana and published the volumes "The time has come to die again" - 1994, "Selected lyrics" - 1996, a collection that was announced the best national book of the year, as well the volume of poetry "In solitude " was to be published in 2004.The focus of the article is on the features of the poetic style specifically on the grotesque as an author’s poetic preference that constitutes a special point of view of the author.The grotesque as an archetype of the poetic state in Rreshpa's poetry is conceived as a way of artistic reflection and as a style of writing. The key function of the metaphor-grotesque is the transfer, within the form of expression, from one context to another context with poetic undertones.Grotesque is a way of expression or way of presentation in which exaggerated sides are put together in powerful and unexpected contrast, or the most mixed, distorted and isolated forms of reality…

Don't Want to Be This: The Elusive Sarah Kane

2004 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annabelle Singer
Keyword(s):  
Soccer Player ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Moral Vision ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Direct Physical Contact ◽  
Sarah Kane

Sarah Kane's plays are part of the outrage, conviction, and sorrow that was her life and death. Kane was a moral hard-ass who aimed to force others to think through the ethical paradoxes of their lives. She struggled to balance her mortal terror and moral vision. As Kane wrote: “Liverpool's [soccer player] Paul Ince publicly admits that he finds tackling more enjoyable than sex. Performance is visceral. It puts you in direct physical contact with thought and feeling.”

The Process Type and Participant Function of Jiah Khan’s, Kevin Carter’s, and Virginia Woolf’s Suicide Discourses

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Nurul Huda Ridhwani ◽  
Sawirman Sawirman
Keyword(s):  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Suicide Notes ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Suicide Note

In this article, the process type and participant function of Jiah Khan’s, Kevin Carter’s, and Virginia Woolf’s suicide notes are analyzed. This article actually is a continuation of the article entitled Experiences around the Clauses: A Transitivity Analysis of Four Famous People’s Suicide Notes published by Vivid: Journal of Language and Literature (see Sawirman and Ridhwani, 2020) about the transitivity system, including process types, participant functions, and circumstantial elements, used in these suicide notes. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory is applied. Not only qualitative approach but also descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Existing documents are one of the instruments to collect the data. Four suicide letters namely a suicide note written by Jiah Khan in 2016, a suicide letter written by Kevin Carter and published by TIME in 2001 entitles The Life and Death of Kevin Carter, and two Virginia Woolf’s suicide discourse published by Quentin Bell entitle Virginia Woolf: A Biography: 1912-1941 (1972) and an autobiography entitles The Journey Not the Arrival Matters: an Autobiography of the Years 1939 to 1970.

scholarly journals Neither Here nor There: The Writing of Wystan Curnow 1961-1984

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomasin Sleigh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Postmodern Theory ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Art And Literature ◽  
Style Of Writing

<p>This thesis addresses the writing of Wystan Curnow from 1961 to 1984. Curnow has written a great deal throughout his life, and the challenge of this thesis has been to select an appropriate time frame and important texts to place within it. The period of 1961 to 1984 has been chosen because it encompasses the 1970s, an interesting decade of experimentation for Curnow and also because the early 1980s signal a shift in Curnow's work. I argue that Curnow's encounter with post-object art and the immediate, phenomenological writing he produced in response to this work gives way in the early 1980s to a style of writing directly informed by post-structural and postmodern theory. Further, this study looks not only at Curnow's criticism but also his poetry to reveal how, in their form and content, these two strands of writing together construct one of the first arguments for an 'avant-garde' in New Zealand art and literature.  The thesis is divided into four chronological chapters. These follow the course of Curnow's life from his birth in 1939 up until the publication of his seminal essay on Colin McCahon 'I Will Need Words' in 1984. The first chapter begins with the biographical background of Curnow's youth and education and considers the significance of the eminence of Curnow's father, Allen Curnow, in the decisions that Wystan Curnow has made throughout his career. This chapter then goes on to look at Curnow's experience in the United States, studying for his Ph.D. and engaging with contemporary American culture. Chapter two begins with Curnow's return to Auckland in 1970 and goes on to look at his important pieces of writing from the 1970s up until his return to New York on sabbatical in 1976. Chapter three focuses on this trip and the key texts which followed it. And finally, chapter four examines the early 1980s, the increasing influence of continental theory in New Zealand and the shift this precipitated in Curnow's writing.</p>

Jolted Images

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavle Levi
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Its Analysis ◽  
Wide Range

Jolted Images brings together a large cast of mainstream and avant-garde cineastes, artists, photographers, comics creators, poets, and more, to reflect on a wide range of phenomena from the realms of cinema and visual culture in the Yugoslav region, broader Europe, and North America. Far from a staid monograph, the book takes a cue from filmmaker Du¿an Makavejev, who once wrote that there are times when it is necessary "to jolt art, no matter what the outcome"; to that end, the book infuses its analysis with playful, creative transfiguration of the material at hand.

Strindberg, August (1849–1912)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Balkin
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Henrik Ibsen ◽  
August Strindberg ◽  
Edward Albee ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Caryl Churchill ◽  
Personal Crisis ◽  
Ingmar Bergman ◽  
Sarah Kane ◽  
Georg Kaiser

August Strindberg is Sweden’s most important writer and one of the most influential dramatists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Along with Henrik Ibsen, the Scandinavian dramatist with whom he is most often compared, Strindberg transformed modern Western theater, inspiring playwrights such as Georg Kaiser, Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee, Sarah Kane, and Caryl Churchill as well as the film and theater director Ingmar Bergman. Strindberg’s plays span the naturalism of early European Modernism as well as Symbolism and Expressionism. His work in nondramatic genres and media includes novels, autobiography, journalism, poetry, essays, painting, and photography. Outside of Sweden Strindberg is known as a personality and a playwright who mined his own and others’ experiences for his art. The miseries of marriage are central to many of Strindberg’s plays, which underwent radical stylistic changes following a personal crisis in the mid-1890s. Strindberg’s experiments with alchemy and occultism during this period influenced his later works, which frequently represent dreams, states between life and death, and the transformability of matter. In the 21st century, Strindberg’s plays are mainstays of world drama.

Rings of a Poem – Rings of Interpretation: The Cooper’s Daughter by Ludmiła Marjańska

2016 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 590-607
Author(s):  
Joanna Grądziel-Wójcik
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Rhythmic Structure ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Its Analysis

Summary This article presents an interpretation of the title poem of The Cooper’s Daughter (2002), Ludmiła Marjańska’s penultimate volume of funeral, senile and feminist verse. ‘The cooper’s daughter’ stands out from Marjańska’s other lyrics by dint of its well-ordered rhythmic structure and its wealth of symbolic signs, placing it firmly in a broad anthropological and cultural context. It’s a dancing poem, re-enacting the mystery of life and death; its analysis opens a perspective on the whole of Marjańska’s work and provides the tools for a reconstruction of her truly original and disturbing ‘metaphysical project’.

‘Look Again’: Indeterminacy and Contemporary British Drama

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Morin
Keyword(s):  
Performance Art ◽  
Conceptual Art ◽  
Marcel Duchamp ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
British Drama ◽  
The Status ◽  
Event Score ◽  
Sarah Kane ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The University

The integration into conceptual art of techniques inspired by Fluxus (the international aggregate of artists who saw indeterminacy as imaginatively and linguistically enabling) has, in turn, given rise to a specific line in British playwriting since the mid-1990s, as evidenced in plays by Martin Crimp, Sarah Kane, and Tim Crouch which gesture towards conceptual art, performance art, and the event score. In this article Emilie Morin brings to light the affinities between this artistic moment in contemporary British theatre and the international avant-garde. She discusses the shared interest of Crimp, Kane, and Crouch in indeterminacy and the fusion between artistic media, paying particular attention to Crouch's redefinition of the status of the modern artwork in his play for galleries England (2007). Critical recognition of the experimental mode in which these playwrights operate has remained subsumed under a non-specific appreciation of their relationship to conceptual art, leaving important questions of form and legacy unaddressed. Here, the proximity between this marginal trend in British playwriting and developments in experimental music and performance art exploring ideas of indeterminacy is highlighted, and the contemporary problematization of performance as event and concept is reconfigured in relation to the legacies of Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, and Fluxus. Emilie Morin is Lecturer in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York and the author of Samuel Beckett and the Problem of Irishness (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Her research interests lie in European modernism and the avant-garde.

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