Language in Contemporary English Drama - Book Report/Review Example

THE USE OF LANGUAGE IN THE WORKS OF SARAH KANE, IRVINE WELSH, AND MARK RAVENHILL Table of Contents Introduction 3 Sarah Kane 3 Relationship of Language to Societal Reality in Kane's Work 6 Audience Perspective, Violence, and Shock Tactics in Kane's Work 7 Irvine Welsh 9 Mark Ravenhill 13 Conclusion 15 References 17 Introduction It is imperative to examine how language is used in the works of Sarah Kane, Irvine Welsh, and Mark Ravenhill in this paper, three contemporary playwright writers. Some aspects that might be considered depicted in their works are the presence of the relationships of characters, audience perspectives, the connection of the individual to society, and violence and shock tactics. The three writers under whose usage of language is under scrutiny in this paper lay critical foundation for the discussion of modern theatre. The importance of language and form in literature and modern theatre lies in the fact that in order to decode a hieroglyph, the only recourse is to know the signs (words) that immediately form another hieroglyph (Zimmerman 2002). Conversely, the function of the theatre is not to give back the familiar reality of everyday life, but to give man intimations of a super reality that knows no bourn (ibid). Theatre has a task to distill the arrangement of language and bring an exaltation of artistic reverie. Its very nature is to communicate and transcend. Postdramatic theatre, like the form of contemporary theatre, knows not only the empty space but also the overcrowded one (Lehmann 2006). The text in post-dramatic theater is also mainly created by employing devising methods or deconstruction of existing dramatic texts (ibid). It is important to recognize what the character wants, the thing that drives them to the scene, what dictates the way they speak, and the language they use. A. Sarah Kane There is a sense of theatrical language in the manner by which Kane presented her writing. She provokes a strong emotional and intellectual reaction from her audience leading to a sense of "filtering emotions through a media aesthetic." Kane's work may be described in terms of the use of language as appearing not as the speech of characters, but rather, as an "autonomous theatricality". The themes employed were redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture, and death. Her works were mainly characterized by poetic intensity, exploration of theatrical form, use of pared-down language, and use of extreme and violent stage action. She wrote that theatre has no memory, making it the most existential of the arts, and it is for this reason that she was attracted to the stage (Saunders 2000). She seemed to seek a theatrical language, capable enough to provoke a strong emotional and intellectual reaction, prevailing in almost all her works (Lehmann 2006). Her experimentation of form and the precise organization of language opened a gate to a somewhat new trend in theatrical play. Her writing, being within the post-dramatic theatre, had theatrical means positioned beyond language alongside with the text, rendering it (the text) only one element within performance. She created her 4:48 Psychosis in 1999 "only" through language; that is, with images within language rather than visualized. The play is about a psychotic breakdown depicting what would happen to a person's mind when the barriers distinguishing reality from imagination completely disappear (Saunders 2002). It did not include characters or stage directions, giving way to some inferences that the theatrical means beyond language are equally positioned alongside the text (ibid). However, a production that aims to give equal importance to both technology and movement might distract the images originally purported in the language, and could create contradictions of forms that may confuse the audience's sign-systems. The use of language in 4:48 Psychosis attempts to make form and content one embodiment. Since her first play Blasted, form had been a focus of Kane's work, emphasizing the greater importance rendered to form rather than content, along the lines "all good art is subversive in form and content" (Stephenson and Langridge 1997). The sections of 4:48 Psychosis lack stage directions or indications of the number of characters to stage it. Brackets indicate silences of varying lengths, and dashes are used to denote speech in some scenes. Long chunks of text in the first person and poetic texts prevail. Kane also recontextualises texts taken from other sources. She once claimed that she could not make concessions on realizing her own images (Stephenson and Langridge 1997). Her 4:48 Psychosis is characteristic of text quality, rhyme, rhythm, assonance, and alliteration. It becomes a shared composition between the writer, actors, director, and spectators. Multiple voices and choral techniques are assigned. Through this, language is experienced as sound and voice are separated from the body, becoming a voice of consciousness than just merely that of the character. The techniques incorporated in the play are multiple but the work itself is able to retain its monolingual structure (Lehmann 2006). Sufficient visual experimentation and other theatrical stimuli are important elements that enable directors to translate vision into performance. This is illustrated in translating into performance the space within the text through silence. This is also considered as one aspect of the work by which Kane uses language. Kane's poetic effect on the pages of her 4:48 Psychosis uses "each," as differentiated from "every," and "all;" or "true" as differentiated from "right" and "correct." These are demonstrated in linear fashion throughout the text, but there is a query as to why this textual characteristic may be demonstrated in performance. It is due to this reason that Kane's works were later called as "viable works of experimental literature" rather than "viable works of drama," suggesting that when a writer abandons character, he is consequently abandoning drama (Nagy 2002). It is apparent that Kane destroyed formal boundaries within her work, both opening and limiting it to interpretations. On the pages of her work, the text challenges linear ways of reading through its language which is written in a poem and innovative with just the use of space. By containing images within language, possibilities of staging the text come into fore alongside with securing vision for it. Kane's works are characterized by breaking from form, in which she asked, "how can I return to form now that my formal thought has gone" (Saunders 2002). Her use of language in her works defined her certain place in playwriting, and suits to what Barthes says, "When the author has been found, the text is explained" (1977, p. 147). It explains the phenomenon that her death did not remove her from authorship, but rather even made her language, with its theme of suicide (as a cause of her own death) more intelligible. Relationship of Language to Societal Reality in Kane's Work Her debut work in 1995 "Blasted" is seen as a parallel between domestic violence and the war in Bosnia, as well as between physical and emotional violence (Sierz 2004). Her Cleansed, written in 1998, depicts a university that takes a function of a torture chamber or a concentration camp. Extreme cruelty is depicted by the work in which declarations of love are viciously tested. Non-orthodox dramatic depictions include a sunflower pushing through the floor and growing above the characters' heads and a rat beginning to eat one character's hand (Lehmann 2006). It is apparent that the use of language in these scenes transcends to mere linguistic realms, but in intrinsic interpretations of human angst, cruelty, passion, sufferings, aggression, and exploitation. They are in fact, real and existing; present in the very minds and hearts of men - and generally, in society. Her works often embody social connection, which she wants her readers and audience to transcend from the mere moment. In Cleansed, for example, a young man hangs himself after realizing how long his prison sentence is, suggesting a language of exasperation for life. The work was actually inspired through a black activist in South Africa during the apartheid years. Thus, the audience needs some digging and scrutinizing before finally discovering the textual meanings of the theatrical forms Kane uses. In her work Blasted, the same social connection is present, where the main character, Ian, was a middle-aged journalist who abused a nave young woman. A soldier raped him as well and had his eyes sucked out. He ate a baby and finally attempted to kill himself. Kane used profane language to complement with the violent form of the play. It shows how in society a man exploits another and how he is exploited back - exploitation being an inherent nature of the world and the human beings within it. The message that the work tries to convey is that death is a relief from all these exploitations, and he who befalls to it quicker is luckier than the rest who are alive. This interpretation of death is also reflected in her 4:48 Psychosis where the character said, "I have become so depressed by the fact of my mortality that I have decided to commit suicide" " I have no desire for death, no suicide ever had" (Kane, 1999). In her Phaedra's Love, which was given a contemporary setting, the use of violent language and action matched cynical and witty dialogues. The focus of the story was Hippolytus instead of Phaedra, who was employing emotional cruelty that pushed the latter to commit suicide. This is again one instance where Kane attempts to integrate her work with societal realities that befall on the humankind. Audience Perspective, Violence, and Shock Tactics in Kane's Work The idea of being in a theatre watching Kane's plays could have an impact beyond literal thematic and linguistic content. Her theater is "experiential" causing the spectators become involved and have a feeling of actually experiencing the scenes themselves rather than just merely sitting back and relaxing (a word which is a far reality when one watches Sarah Kane). In Kane's works, theatre resists to be theatre. The audience would tend to share their own aspirations, intentions, sufferings, distress, agony, and cruelty, with those of the characters. After all, they are taken away from their current mood and world into one that trails them into a deeper contemplation. Stage violence is however, an expression of despair, whose boldness and starkness of images are admired by audiences. Blasted is characterized by explicit sex and violence shocking the public. It was likewise described as "disturbing" because of a naturalistic first half and a richly symbolic and eerily nightmarish second half, which Kane calls "innovative structure" (Lehmann 2006). The same theatrical innovation took place in her Phaedra's Love, Cleansed, and Crave wherein extreme emotional content were present by an innovated language. Her talent for theatrical structure was manifested in her Crave, where the four characters have no names and their speeches were addressed to anyone among them on stage. Kane involves the audience by making them contemplate on the meaning and messages of the play, transcending from just mere language towards a kind of involvement that includes even them. She uses conventional drama in an innovated theatrical form where scenes of shock and terror are features; yet, despite it all, there is a genuine emotional punch (Sierz 2000). This is probably through this language of emotional punch that despite being described as "a disgusting feast of filth" by the Daily Mail, and amidst scenes of masturbation, fellatio, defecation, homosexual rape, eye gouging, and cannibalism, Blasted sold out. Most people's perception of Blasted was that the play was extremely violent and grotesquely disturbing, shunning away Kane's initial attempt at penetrating the theatrical and playwright field. However, some writers and critics rather view it as an unconventional, unstructured piece of work, full of potential, and admiringly good. Her use of extreme violence in her works alongside with depicting the grotesque manners of humans and the ugly selfish environment they create are only expressions of the real, the truth, and the here and now in society. Skeptics would initially think that her 4:48 Psychosis is her suicide note - a literal refection of her life, and some even pointed out that it is representative of the time when every 4:48 in the morning, she was regularly assailed by severe depression. Some would say that her work is felt as something that owes much more to clinical depression than to real artistic vision (Spencer 1998). Fears and confusions of mental illness are reproduced in her work. But her use of language in her text enables few writers to view it as a separate piece of work; separate from who she really is as a person and the "character" of the one in monologue in 4:48 Psychosis. Each new play is to some extent, an investigation of form, and a new departure. Her body of work is one, which is consistent in vision, diverse across a range of subjects. On the other hand, it is also a presentation of austere, extreme situations with social context of Freudian psychology - all these are commonly present in her writings, and from which she is described as possessing classical sensibility (Sierz 2000). Similarly, her work consists of a language that is bold, as well as images that are stark, with her depiction of violence and outrage are perceived as "profound" by most contemporary writers. It can almost be said that the real effect of 4:48 Psychotics comes from the specific, material qualities of the language used, harmonizing its form. B. Irvine Welsh Irvin, just like Sarah Kane, is an acclaimed contemporary Scottish novelist, who is most famous for his work Trainspotting. He was also able to write plays and screenplays, and directed short films as well. He wrote The Acid House, a collection of short stories whose themes are somewhat similar to that of Trainspotting. A touch of fantasy is dashed in The Acid House such as the swapping of bodies between a baby and a drug user and the transformation of a man into a fly by God as a punishment for wasting his life in his The Granton Star Cause. His third book Marabou Stark Nightmares is characteristic of a typically grim tale of thugs and schemes in sub-working class Scotland alongside a hallucinatory adventure tale whose setting is in South Africa (Proctor 2003). Common themes gradually emerged between the two stories, with a shocking ending as finality. The usage of language in this end is very important, and Welsh is able depict the "shockness" by likewise shocking words. His Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance finished in 1996 emerged as his next most high-profile work after Trianspotting. Three unconnected novellas consist it; whose theme are totally not integrated with one another. The first, Lorraine Goes to Livingston, a classic British romance novel whose language is characteristic of lewdness through its bawdy satire. The second, Fortune's Always Hiding, is a revenge story, and the third, The Undefeated, is a subtle romance between a young woman and an aging clubgoer where the former is dissatisfied with the confines of her suburban life. It is said that most critics did not give much attention to the first two as they had to the The Undefeated. The two characters were imbued by the writer with surprising warmth, with the likewise usage of language that trails the reader towards this end; and an easy, pro-ecstasy ending was tracked (Proctor 2003). It may be inferred that Welsh novels are generally "less disturbing" and subtler than those of Kane. For his novel Filth, (1998) Welsh forwent the conventional writing by using as narrators a corrupt police officer and his tapeworm. Welsh had indeed never avoided flawed characters, a characteristic that apparently appears in most of his works. He made a classic Welsh inversion by making the most sympathetic character in the tapeworm while the police officer was depicted as a brutally vicious sociopath. Welsh assumes the depiction of both the police officer and the tapeworm by the language used, which ensures how characterization is carried out, relying largely on the intent of the writer. It may be said that he experiments with typography in the very essence that the tapeworm's internal monologue is imposed over the top of the policeman's own internal monologue, visibly conveying the former's rapacious appetite. The author is successful in depicting a rather rare manner of presenting this rapacity, as shocking as the fact about the tapeworm nestling in the inside of the police officer. People would probably find it ordinary to know a conduct of corruption among government authorities, or a man's pursuit to accumulate properties belonging to his neighbor; but such would not have the same effect as portraying its analogy in the tapeworm and the policeman, whose very idea itself is gross and sickening. His Porno explores the impact of pornography on society, as well as on the very individuals who are involved in producing it. He also explored the impact of maturity and aging on individuals who do not welcome them in their existence. Welsh' usage of language involves a compelling feeling that attempts to (re) awaken the reader on the importance of acting upon evils in society and taking steps to combat them (although this is apparently not directly suggested). He tends to arouse the reader's consciousness and take them to a travel that purports at making them see what is already seeable but is ignored. Through a language that is compelling, Irvine Welsh is able to do this. Welsh can be qualified as a writer who connects social realism in his work, and there is something that the audience can convey in the social environment. His novel The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs written in 2006 is about a young, alcoholic civil servant who inadvertently puts a curse on his nerdy co-worker. The novel Contamination is a contribution to the result of his travel in Africa with fellow writers, depicting the violence and warlords in the region. Hence, Welsh is placed in the rather "middle portion of the meter" in his not too unconventional forms of literary presentation, unlike how critics depict Kane about her own writing. The incorporation of his works to societal needs is not limited to simply mere presentation or symbolic idealism, but transcends to even how society may be changed or how people may be helped. His travel in Africa may be analyzed as having this as an end; which is again different from other writers' goals, which primarily center on the individual's inner self and his self-destruction through greed and other forms of selfishness. In One City where he is a contributor along with Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith, a trust fund was established called "One City Trust" aiming to extend benefit to Calcutta for social inclusion in Edinburgh. It shows Welsh' concern for society and recognition of social obligation by enlightening people about social issues and carrying out an advocacy through writing. In collaboration with his colleague Cavanaugh, a screenplay The Meat Trade was written, a 19th century West Port Murders depiction. It is about two brothers who steal human organs in order to meet the demands of the global transplant market. Welsh does not only delve on conveying cruelty, suffering, and selfishness in human drama, but transcends from these ends into portraying the role of society in such inhumanity. Welsh uses a language that is in cognizance of social realms, and conveys this clearly to the audience. In his first dramatic film Nuts, which he also wrote, the character is a man who deals with battling testicular cancer in the post-Celtic tiger Ireland. Welsh did not use allegories here such as a police officer and a tapeworm, but is rather more realistic in both the usage of language and depiction of the scenario. It is imperative to mention that Welsh is often pigeonholed as a writer whose work explores themes about recreational drug use. Both his fiction and non-fiction works are dominated by the working class setting and Scottish identity in the period spanning the 1960s up to the present. His themes revolve on the rise and fall of the council housing scheme, sectarianism, sex, football, suppressed homosexuality, dance clubs, low-paid work, freemasonry, sodomy, class divisions, emigration, prejudices, and denial of opportunity. His language style suggests a feeling of a "shared universe" within his writing, shared by a number of characters. This is also present in his overall style where for example, some characters from Trainspotting make a cameo appearance in the Acid House, Glue, and Porno. It is also noteworthy that the language structure that he employs in his works is generally his native Edinburgh Scots dialect. The traditional conventions of literary Scots used by other writers such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Burns, and Robert Fergusson are totally ignored (Kelly 2005). He instead transcribes dialects phonetically, a device earlier popularized by other writers such as James Kelman (ibid). Non-Scottish readers may encounter a bit difficulty deciphering the Scottish language he uses and may consequently neglect the meaning which the work tries to convey them; even the use of football and sectarianism, writing tools which Welsh is fond of and is known for. In order to remedy this, some international editions of his books have brief glossaries at the end. C. Mark Ravenhill Mark Ravenhill, another writer in the contemporary theatre, surprised the public with his work entitled, Shopping and Fucking which brings one to terms with the superficial existence of the likewise superficial personalities as it trails the tale of a tragic love entanglement between a fourteen-year-old male prostitute and a crime lord in London. A grotesque pergola and flashing neon bulbs dominate the stage, sending clues to what one must expect to see, while a roaring vulgarity is echoed by the soundtrack (Zimmerman 2002). While other playwright busy themselves with the deconstruction of text and emotional sequences, his work depicts a rather more familiar realm of character, plot and referential sequences. Scrutinizing the language through the title itself - Shopping and Fucking - denotes an unconventional use of textual resonance to the current English culture. The work deals with addiction of many forms, including drugs, sex, money, and infidelity and is good silage for any idea (Milling, Thomson, and Donohue 2004). Rape is a climactic moment, matched with the flowering of brutality and use of foul language, with addiction to sex being a counterpoint to addiction to drugs. There is an apparent defense of weakness for the underlying status quo, and some critics see this as a failure of the writer to transcend from the actual and proceed to higher heights that are philosophical. However, Shopping and Fucking, including its contents and forms under which language lies, is described as lacking in dialectics, an element that enables the audience's enlightenment be sustained or even recognize a theme. Critics call it "an illustration of a reality that knows - nothing at all, really" (Zimmerman 2002). Although this may be the case, Ravenhill depicts a reality which some people face everyday but ignore, a reality to which they are severely immune and used. This is the reality of credit, insurance, and fast food where in its midst is another reality of human neglect, of cruelty, of addiction of many forms. These realities, being very prevalent, normal, and common, dull man's ability to see, or clouds what he sees. This is what Ravenhill wants to put forward in his Shopping and Fucking. Ravenhill relates with the audience by taking them down to the trails of savagery - not of a classic and pre-civilized man, but of the very contemporary one. He describes man as addicted to the desires of his flesh - sex, money, drugs, infidelity - and attunes his character and aspirations to these. He is mindless of his vulgarity of speech and action, which are only very characteristic of a person addicted to fleshly and worldly craving. He regards slaughter of his fellow human being a normal design of this universe, and indulges himself in rape and grotesque animalistic actions. These are realities of today's world, common in cities and the countryside alike, in urban and rural places, for as long as there is a prevailing status quo - an inequality and injustice undertaken by the oppressor over the oppressed. Ravenhill claims that a certain type of playwright, particularly that of the current time, needs not to go further than noticing the conduct and behavior of each person belonging to a certain group, class, or social class since each of these have their own language and vocabulary. They change year by year, and one task of a playwright is to keep up to date with those. This is very reflective of his work, particularly what was mentioned about Shopping and Fucking; fucking being rested between colloquial and slang, a language of the street men and women, of street boys and girls. Apparently, Ravenhill is up to date with the culture of these people and uses no attempt to re-form the word or use a better term. There is also an apparent presence to "influence" the audience and readers to unfold what they do not see in their very front through a depiction of grotesque images that only meant addiction to money, sex, drugs, and infidelity. It is this "shock tactic" which awakens the audience. Conclusion Of the three contemporary writers used in this paper, it is apparent that Kane used the most grotesque depiction of both form and content, putting in a theatrical stage a dismal and alarming condition man's compelling urges of masturbation, rape, murder, suicide, and death. Her works are mainly characteristic of intense violence, foul language, and suicide, suiting to her intent to complement the theme. Hers is one that confronts the inner self of the individual through the use of a surrealistic method - a Freudian psychology. Her work is characteristically described by some critics as "absorbed by her own insights, fears, distresses, and disappointments." Welsh, on the other hand, takes a further leap in terms of the "distance" of which his works can reach. If Kane conveys her works mostly within the dimensions of the inner self, Welsh integrated his in societal needs through advocacy; thus, implying some forms of change in social structure or system. His use of language is somewhat toned down compared to that of Kane, but used typography nonetheless, just like his Filth. Ravenhill used shock tactics as well, just like the two writers, through grotesque and debasing treatment of his themes, apparently intending to disclose to his audience the reality of addiction to which individuals are commonly attached - sex, money, drugs - rapt in vulgar language, grotesque music, and a likewise grotesque characterization and stage presentation. Based on the three writers it may be inferred that the contemporary English literature and drama is characteristic of unconventional setting and usage of language, alongside with experimentation of theatrical form, violence, and debasing depiction in an attempt to display reality. References BARTHES, R., 1977. The death of the author In R.BARTHES. Image Music Text. London: Fontana Press, p142-148. EARNEST, Steve, 2004. Love me or kill me: Sarah Kane and the theatre of extremes (Review) Theatre Journal - Volume 56, Number 1, March 2004, pp. 153-154. KANE, Sarah, 1999. 4:48 psychosis. Bantam Books. KELLY, Aaron, 2005. Irvine Welsh. Manchester University Press. LEHMANN, H., 2006. A study of the re-assignment of roles and attitudes towards text within Postdramatic Theatre, using as subject: 4:48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane (2001). LEHMANN, H., 2006. translated by Karen Jrs-Munby. Postdramatic Theatre. London and New York: Routledge. MCMILLAN, Ian, 2000. Mark Ravenhill Interview. Ian Macmillan's Writing Lab. Retrieved on May 7, 2008 from http://www.open2.net/writing/markravenhill.html MILLING, J., THOMSON, P., and DONOHUE, J. W., 2004. The Cambridge history of British theatre. Cambridge University Press. NAGY, P., 2002. Hold your nerve: notes for a young playwright. In: M. DELGADO and C. SVICH, eds. Theatre in Crisis Performance manifestos for a new century. Manchester University Press, p. 74-82 PROCTOR, James, 2003. Irvine Welsh. Jonathan Cape Ltd. London. SAUNDERS, G., 2002. Love me or kill me, Sarah Kane and the theatre of extremes. Manchester University Press. SIERZ, Aleks, 2004. Review of Graham Saunders's "Love Me or Kill Me": Sarah Kane and the Theatre of Extremes. SIERZ, Aleks, 2000. Sarah Kane. Retrieved on May 7, 2008. SPENCER, Charles, 1998. Sarah Kane. STEPHENSON, H and LANGRIDGE, N., 1997. Rage and Reason, Women playwrights on Playwrighting. London: Methuen. ZIMMERMAN, Mark, 2002. Some sort of awakening. Read More