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

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.

Theoretical Study of Pyrrole Interaction with Alkali Metal Exchanged Zeolites: Investigation of the Reliability of Cluster and Periodic Models

The interaction of pyrrole with the alkali metal exchanged zeolites was investigated using cluster models of various sizes and with a hybrid quantum mechanics/interatomic potential function model (QM-pot). The interaction of pyrrole with the M+/zeolite is dominantly driven by the interaction of pyrrole π-system with the alkali metal cation. Further stabilization is due to the formation of the hydrogen bonds between NH and framework oxygen atoms. A good agreement between calculated and experimental shift of the N-H stretching vibration upon the adsorption of pyrrole in M+/zeolite was found with the periodic QM-pot model. The performance of the cluster models for the description of pyrrole interaction with M+/zeolite is discussed. Reliable results can be obtained only when large cluster models are used for description of the zeolite framework.

Recovering Nonisothermal Physical Aging Shift Factors Via Continuous Test Data: Theory and Experimental Results

For isothermal physical aging, a few simple tests to characterize the aging shift factors allow reasonable prediction of the mechanical response. In this paper, a new technique is developed to extract aging shift factors from creep data during a nonisothermal history. Previous methods have generated discrete experimental shift factors by a series of short-term creep tests, in which the load portion alone is used for evaluation; this is particularly time consuming for nonisothermal histories, since many data points (requiring several tests) may be needed for an adequate characterization of the response. This paper presents a new continuous shift factor (CSF) method, based on the validity of effective time theory, which generates a continuous experimental shift factor curve from a single test. Results are presented for this method when applied to a polyimide/carbon fiber composite material tested in shear under temperature jump conditions; this nonisothermal aging data for a polymer matrix composite is shown to exhibit similar response to that of homogeneous polymers. The new CSF technique will be useful in the development of models to predict the shift factor due to coupled aging and thermal history.