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Trespassing Physical Boundaries: Transgression, Vulnerability and Resistance in Sarah Kane’s Blasted (1995)
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ( IF 0.3 ) Pub Date : 2019-03-04 , DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.3377
Paula Barba Guerrero , Ana Mª Manzanas Calvo

Sarah Kane’s Blasted has been analyzed from various perspectives that address the layers of destruction it exposes. From the questioning of its title and meaning, to the unravelling of the protagonists’ abusive relationship, the analyses have emphasized the depiction of vulnerability as the defining human trait that Jean Ganteau observes in contemporary British literature. However, a key aspect has been overlooked in the critical response to the play: for Kane vulnerability does not equal helplessness, but rather stands in opposition to it. Hence, this article concentrates on how Blasted formulates a new understanding of vulnerability that fits Judith Butler’s later redefinition of such notion as a trigger for resistance. It argues that, facing gender-based trauma, Kane dismantles the conditions that allow for a patronizing configuration of vulnerability in space by relocating the victim to an actual battlefield. Following Sarah Bracke’s conception of governmental security as resilient, the article explores Kane’s multisided articulations of violence, vulnerability and trauma. It traces human relations as well as the literal rupture of space. From the hostile environment of a warzone, the notions of victimhood and fragility become rearticulated to undertake the responsibility of survival, questioning our passivity and ethical duties towards Others. Paula Barba Guerrero and Ana Ma Manzanas Calvo, "Trespassing Physical Boundaries: page 2 of 10 Transgression, Vulnerability and Resistance in Sarah Kane’s Blasted (1995)" CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 21.2 (2019): Special Issue Gendered Bodies in Transit: Between Vulnerability and Resistance. Ed. Manuela Coppola and Maria Isabel Romero Ruiz Paula BARBA GUERRERO and Ana Ma MANZANAS CALVO The misguided understanding of vulnerability and resistance as antithetical terms sums up the critical dilemma at the heart of Kane’s opera prima, Blasted. Set in an opulent hotel room in Leeds, the first half of the play explores the power dynamics of the gendered relationship between Ian—a white journalist in his forties who suffers from lung cancer, and Cate (his twenty-one-year-old, former girlfriend), a bond based on psychological abuse, physical assault, and female subjection. Filled with visceral images, torture, and raw depictions of abjection, the second half of Blasted rearticulates the initial local crisis and projects it onto the international arena, on an unidentifiable battlefield whose significance and argumentation are coded in the symbolic order of the play. Kane’s harrowing drama thereby becomes representative of a theatre of “experiential quality,” in which the action is not narrated, but submitted to the public so that they relive it (Bíçer 81). Such emotional contagion disrupts the foundations of naturalism, transforming space into the catalyst that triggers the action, the unifying entity that connects the actors’ and the audience’s bodies. The violent scenes respond to a desire to deconstruct the social norms that society unquestionably accepts, such as the perception of vulnerability as limited agency. And because the undoing of social rules signifies that the feeling of security implicit in the privileged nations’ discourse is false, it is not difficult to imagine that Blasted’s premiere in 1995 was an absolute scandal, for it exposed British national insecurity, ambivalence, violence, and corporeality in a very aggressive manner. Kane’s disclosure of human atrocities was deeply misunderstood as an immature attempt to shock the British public (Saunders 38). However, the play’s ensemble represents the dangers of a society at risk unaware of its own precariousness and vulnerability. Thus, this paper aims to examine the disclosure of vulnerability as a tool to regain agency while attempting to deconstruct the pejorative connotations that revolve around this notion. Kane’s explicit portrayal of trauma and abjection, which emphasizes the passivity of resilience, anticipates Butler’s redefinition of vulnerability as resistance in “Rethinking Vulnerability and Resistance.” This article presents the evolution of the female protagonist, a resilient individual who constantly bounces back to a system that is threatening to her, through the prism of Cathy Caruth’s and Sigmund Freud’s understandings of trauma, and Julia Kristeva’s vision of abjection. The crude exposure of Cate’s abject, traumatic neuroses becomes the trigger for a massive deconstruction of the naturalistic order, which enables her to embrace vulnerability in order to resist abuse, oppose the social powers she is acted on, and survive. In Blasted, Sarah Kane elaborates a new dramatic mode that rearticulates identity to liberate the audience from the burden of indifference, silence and repression. She does so by exposing the triangulation of the traumatic, the abject, and the vulnerable as a mechanism of resistance before Butler articulated her argument against traditional demarcations of frailty. To unleash the power of vulnerability, Kane is aware of the need to first introduce her audience to the aspects of the contemporary world that they prefer to suppress. As a consequence, she decides to initially lull them into a naturalistic illusion that recreates a real-life situation with the unfulfilled promise of passive entertainment. Set in a hotel room—one of Marc Augé’s non-places, Blasted’s mise-en-scène incorporates several elements (such as a bathroom or a double bed) which, together with the naturalistic atmosphere, incite the spectator to unconsciously map out space according to familiar parameters. The audience relocates the scene to a domestic environment since the aforementioned elements have homely connotations. The recognition of familiar codes favors the spectators’ empathic incorporation, for the dialectics between the inferred residential safe-space and the audience heightens their comfort, and mitigates the adaptation shock caused by Kane’s revolutionary drama. Under the cover of familiarity, Kane also introduces discursive strategies that contribute to maintaining the false sense of security raised by the naturalistic stage. The protagonists seem to communicate with the casualness of an ordinary couple, which adds to the mental picture of the domestic safe-space: “I’m glad you’ve come. Didn’t think you would,” Ian says smiling, to which Cate answers “I was worried . . . You sounded unhappy,” showing her concern for him through informal interaction (Kane, Blasted 4). Nevertheless, Kane’s initial desire for her audience to feel at ease is contradicted by a later set of symbolic traces that raise doubts on the reliability of the naturalistic scene, and call into question its ontological stability. As Aleks Sierz argues, playwrights rewrite the nation by means of metaphors “which reimagine reality” (241) and enable a re-reading of the symbolic order. Kane’s metaphors become the first step of a gradual deconstruction of the social beliefs the audience holds and never questions. This undoing of assumptions is gradually reflected in space, as the naturalistic room gives way to a war zone. The clues that make this destructive progression possible appear either verbally, visually or acoustically to warn the audience (in a very indirect manner) about all the violence, shock, and destruction to come. For instance, in the apparently relaxed dialogue between the characters there are nuances that insinuate Paula Barba Guerrero and Ana Ma Manzanas Calvo, "Trespassing Physical Boundaries: page 3 of 10 Transgression, Vulnerability and Resistance in Sarah Kane’s Blasted (1995)" CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 21.2 (2019): Special Issue Gendered Bodies in Transit: Between Vulnerability and Resistance. Ed. Manuela Coppola and Maria Isabel Romero Ruiz an unbalanced command of the dramatic cosmos. Once they enter the room, Cate appears to be delighted and admires the place, whereas Ian undermines space claiming that he has “shat in better places” (Kane, Blasted 3). This initial difference illustrates the protagonists’ divergent reactions towards space. For Cate, the hotel room represents a new environment that an unemployed and naïve young woman like her has not been able to experience before. For Ian, space is a material presence to conquer which he takes for granted and will contaminate throughout the play. Such deviation alerts the audience to the source of trouble in the play, a normative understanding of identity that reduces femininity to a corporeal commodity in the hands of masculine power. Another source of symbolic hinting are the visual props that, in their transformation, contribute to meaning functioning as metaphors for actions (Saunders 42) that the spectator is invited to decipher. Therefore, the scattered bouquet of flowers spotted at the beginning of the second scene (a love token given to Cate) symbolizes in its destruction the violent expiration of Ian’s seductive tactics that culminates in Cate’s rape during the night. Ian’s first sexual assault occurs off-scene and is only implied in the protagonists’ conversation, in her symptoms of trauma, and through visual symbols. The flowers, the newspapers, the gun, the telephone, and the bottles of gin become fundamental tokens that infuse the dramatic action with significance, allowing the audience to grasp meaning as the play unfolds. Given Cate’s unawareness of the dangers that a space colonized by masculinity conceals, the room becomes a prison in which she is vexed, dehumanized, and tortured. It is not difficult to imagine that the spectators might feel suspicious of the artifice hidden under the surface of familiarity, being their mistrust the key to dismantle the initial domesticity the play portrays. The fracture of the feelings of protection in scene two becomes, under abusive circumstances, a trigger for the uncertaint

中文翻译:

越过物理边界:《萨拉·凯恩的爆炸》(1995)中的过犯,脆弱性和抵抗

萨拉·凯恩(Sarah Kane)的《爆炸》(Blasted)已从各种角度进行了分析,以解决其暴露的破坏层。从对标题和含义的质疑到对主角的虐待性关系的揭示,分析都强调了让·甘托在当代英国文学中所观察到的定义性人类特质的描绘。但是,在对该剧的批评反应中,一个关键方面被忽略了:因为凯恩的脆弱性并不等于无助,而是与之相对立。因此,本文着重于Blasted如何对脆弱性形成新的理解,以适应Judith Butler后来重新定义的此类概念作为抵抗的触发。它认为,面对基于性别的创伤,凯恩(Kane)通过将受害者转移到实际战场上,消除了允许光顾太空中脆弱性的条件。继莎拉·布拉克(Sarah Bracke)将政府安全视为具有韧性的概念之后,本文探讨了凯恩(Kane)关于暴力,脆弱性和创伤的多方面表述。它追踪人际关系以及空间的字面破裂。在战区的敌对环境中,受害和脆弱性的概念重新定位为承担生存责任,质疑我们对他人的消极态度和道德义务。宝拉·巴尔巴·格雷罗(Paula Barba Guerrero)和安娜·玛·曼萨纳斯·安娜(Ana Ma Manzanas Calvo),“超越物理界限:第10页,共10页,第2页,内容涉及萨拉·凯恩(Sarah Kane)的爆炸事件中的过犯,脆弱性和抵抗(1995)” CLCWeb:比较文学和文化21.2(2019):继莎拉·布拉克(Sarah Bracke)将政府安全视为具有韧性的概念之后,本文探讨了凯恩(Kane)关于暴力,脆弱性和创伤的多方面表述。它追踪人际关系以及空间的字面破裂。在战区的敌对环境中,受害和脆弱性的概念重新定位为承担生存责任,质疑我们对他人的消极态度和道德义务。宝拉·巴尔巴·格雷罗(Paula Barba Guerrero)和安娜·玛·曼萨纳斯·安娜(Ana Ma Manzanas Calvo),“超越物理界限:第10页,共10页,第2页,内容涉及萨拉·凯恩(Sarah Kane)的爆炸事件中的过犯,脆弱性和抵抗(1995)” CLCWeb:比较文学和文化21.2(2019):继莎拉·布拉克(Sarah Bracke)将政府安全视为具有韧性的概念之后,本文探讨了凯恩(Kane)关于暴力,脆弱性和创伤的多方面表述。它追踪人际关系以及空间的字面破裂。在战区的敌对环境中,受害和脆弱性的概念重新定位为承担生存责任,质疑我们对他人的消极态度和道德义务。宝拉·巴尔巴·格雷罗(Paula Barba Guerrero)和安娜·玛·曼萨纳斯·安娜(Ana Ma Manzanas Calvo),“超越物理界限:第10页,共10页,第2页,内容涉及萨拉·凯恩(Sarah Kane)的爆炸事件中的过犯,脆弱性和抵抗(1995)” CLCWeb:比较文学和文化21.2(2019):在战区的敌对环境中,受害和脆弱性的概念重新定位为承担生存责任,质疑我们对他人的消极态度和道德义务。宝拉·巴尔巴·格雷罗(Paula Barba Guerrero)和安娜·玛·曼萨纳斯·安娜(Ana Ma Manzanas Calvo),“超越物理界限:第10页,共10页,第2页,内容涉及萨拉·凯恩(Sarah Kane)的爆炸事件中的过犯,脆弱性和抵抗(1995)” CLCWeb:比较文学和文化21.2(2019):在战区的敌对环境中,受害和脆弱性的概念重新定位为承担生存责任,质疑我们对他人的消极态度和道德义务。宝拉·巴尔巴·格雷罗(Paula Barba Guerrero)和安娜·玛·曼萨纳斯·安娜(Ana Ma Manzanas Calvo),“超越物理边界:第10页,共10页,第2页,内容涉及萨拉·凯恩(Sarah Kane)的爆炸事件中的过犯,脆弱性和抵抗(1995)” CLCWeb:比较文学和文化21.2(2019):过境性别问题特刊:脆弱性与抵抗力之间。埃德 Manuela Coppola和Maria Isabel Romero Ruiz Paula BARBA GUERRERO和Ana Ma MANZANAS CALVO对脆弱性和抵抗性的误解理解为对立术语,这是凯恩歌剧表面上最核心的问题,即“爆破”。该剧的前半部分坐落在利兹一家豪华的酒店房间内,探讨了伊恩(Ian)和凯特(二十一岁,前女友),基于心理虐待,人身攻击和女性服从的关系。爆破的后半部分充满了内脏的图像,酷刑和原始的苦难描绘,重新勾勒了最初的局部危机并将其投射到国际舞台上,在无法识别的战场上,其重要性和论据按照游戏的符号顺序进行编码。凯恩悲惨的戏剧由此成为“体验质量”剧院的代表,该剧院的故事没有叙述,而是提交给公众,以便他们重新体验(Bíçer81)。这种情感上的传染破坏了自然主义的根基,将空间转化为触发动作的催化剂,即连接演员和观众身体的统一实体。暴力场面回应了解构社会毫无疑问接受的社会规范的愿望,例如将脆弱性视为有限的代理。而且由于社会规则的取消意味着特权国家的话语所隐含的安全感是虚假的,不难想象,爆炸案(Blasted)在1995年的首映绝对是丑闻,因为它以非常具有侵略性的方式暴露了英国的民族不安全感,矛盾心理,暴力和肉体。凯恩(Kane)对人类暴行的揭露被误解为不成熟的企图震撼英国公众(桑德斯38)。然而,戏剧的合奏代表了一个处于危险之中的社会,没有意识到自己的不稳定和脆弱性的危险。因此,本文旨在研究脆弱性的披露,以此作为重新获得代理权的一种工具,同时试图解构围绕这一概念的贬义性含义。凯恩(Kane)对创伤和宽容的明确描绘强调了韧性的被动性,并期望巴特勒在“重新考虑脆弱性和抵抗力”中将脆弱性重新定义为抵抗力。”本文介绍了女性主角的演变过程,她是一个富有韧性的个人,通过凯茜·卡洛斯(Cathy Caruth)和西格蒙德·弗洛伊德(Sigmund Freud)对创伤的理解以及朱莉娅·克里斯蒂娃(Julia Kristeva)的屈辱观不断反弹,不断反弹回对她构成威胁的系统。凯特(Cate)饱受创伤的神经症的粗暴暴露,引发了对自然主义秩序的大规模解构,这使她能够接受脆弱性,以抵抗虐待,反对采取行动的社会力量并生存。萨拉·凯恩(Sarah Kane)在《爆破》中阐述了一种新的戏剧性模式,重新塑造了身份,使观众从冷漠,沉默和压抑的负担中解放出来。她通过揭露外伤,被虐待者,在巴特勒明确提出反对传统脆弱性界限的论点之前,脆弱者是抵抗的一种机制。为了释放脆弱性的力量,凯恩意识到有必要先向听众介绍他们更喜欢压制的当代世界的各个方面。结果,她决定首先诱使他们陷入一种自然主义的幻想中,从而重新实现现实生活中的被动娱乐承诺。Blasted的mise-en-scène位于酒店房间内,这是MarcAugé的非场所之一,它融合了多种元素(例如浴室或双人床),再加上自然主义的氛围,促使观众在不知不觉中根据空间布局熟悉的参数。观众将场景转移到家庭环境中,因为上述元素具有朴素的内涵。熟悉代码的识别有利于观众的移情结合,因为推断出的住宅安全空间与观众之间的辩证法提高了他们的舒适度,并减轻了凯恩革命性戏剧所带来的适应冲击。在熟悉的掩护下,凯恩还引入了话语策略,这些策略有助于维持自然主义阶段提出的错误的安全感。主角似乎与一对普通夫妻的休闲交流,这增加了家庭安全空间的心理印象:“我很高兴您来了。没想到你会这么做,”伊恩笑着说,凯特回答说:“我很担心。。。你听起来不开心 通过非正式互动来表达对她的关注(凯恩,爆破4)。然而,凯恩最初希望观众们放松的愿望与后来出现的一系列符号痕迹相矛盾,这些痕迹使人们对自然主义场景的可靠性产生怀疑,并质疑其本体论的稳定性。正如阿列克斯·塞尔兹(Aleks Sierz)所论证的那样,剧作家通过隐喻“重新构想现实”(241)重写了国家,并重新解读了象征秩序。凯恩的隐喻成为逐步解构听众所持且从未质疑的社会观念的第一步。随着自然主义的房间让位于战区,这种假设的取消逐渐反映在空间中。使这种破坏性进展成为可能的线索要么口头出现,以视觉或听觉的方式(以非常间接的方式)警告观众即将发生的所有暴力,震惊和破坏。例如,在角色之间看起来轻松的对话中,有细微的差别暗示了Paula Barba Guerrero和Ana Ma Manzanas Calvo,“突破物理边界:第10页中的第3页,Sarah Kane的Blasted(1995)中的侵犯,脆弱性和抵抗力” CLCWeb:比较文学与文化21.2(2019):过境性别问题特刊:脆弱性与抵抗力之间。埃德 Manuela Coppola和Maria Isabel Romero Ruiz对戏剧性宇宙的不平衡指挥。他们进入房间后,凯特(Cate)似乎很高兴并钦佩这个地方,而伊恩(Ian)则破坏了空间,声称他“在更好的地方s过嘴”(凯恩,爆炸3)。最初的差异说明了主角对太空的不同反应。对于凯特来说,酒店房间代表着一个新的环境,一个像她这样的失业且天真的年轻女性以前从未体验过。对于伊恩来说,太空是征服物质的存在,他认为这是理所当然的,并且会在整个剧中受到污染。这种偏离会提醒观众注意剧中的麻烦根源,对身份的规范性理解,可将女性气质降低为男性力量手中的有形商品。象征性暗示的另一个来源是视觉道具,它们在转换过程中有助于意义发挥作用,被用作邀请观众解读的动作的隐喻(桑德斯42)。因此,在第二个场景开始时发现的散落的鲜花花束(送给凯特的爱情信物)在其破坏中象征着伊恩的诱人战术的暴力到期,最终导致凯特在夜间被强奸。伊恩(Ian)的第一次性侵犯发生在幕后,仅在主角的谈话,她的外伤症状和视觉符号中暗示。鲜花,报纸,枪支,电话,杜松子酒的瓶成为重要的象征,为戏剧性的动作注入了重要的意义,使观众能够在剧情展开时掌握意义。考虑到凯特(Cate)没有意识到被男性气概掩盖的空间所掩盖的危险,这个房间变成了一个监狱,在那里她感到烦恼,不人道和遭受酷刑。不难想像,观众可能会对隐藏在熟悉面下的诡计感到怀疑,因为他们不信任取消该剧所描绘的最初家庭风格的关键。在虐待情况下,场景二中保护感的破裂成为不确定性的触发。这个房间变成了一个监狱,她在其中受到烦恼,残忍和折磨。不难想像,观众可能会对隐藏在熟悉面下的诡计感到怀疑,因为他们不信任取消该剧所描绘的最初家庭风格的关键。在虐待情况下,场景二中保护感的破裂成为不确定性的触发。房间变成了一个监狱,她在那里感到烦恼,不人道和遭受酷刑。不难想象,观众可能会对隐藏在熟悉表象之下的诡计感到怀疑,因为他们不信任是拆除该剧所描绘的最初家庭风格的关键。在虐待情况下,场景二中保护感的破裂成为不确定性的触发。
更新日期:2019-03-04
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