none 10.3138/md.55.2.230 University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) University of Toronto Press Inc 1696 56054252 53978 2025031216342900459 10.3138 2025-03-12T23:59:26Z 2012-06-17T21:37:39Z 3 Modern Drama Modern Drama 0026-7694 1712-5286 06 2012 55 2 Cristina Delgado-García Abstract: Drawing on Judith Butler’s writings on performativity, this article investigates the critique of the liberal-humanist understanding of selfhood offered in Sarah Kane’s last three plays. It argues that Cleansed subversively deploys conventional dramatic character to disfigure the subject as it is understood by liberal humanism. The motif of the wound activates this subversive characterization, with the supposed self-sameness or coherence of selfhood being dismembered on the page. Subjectivity emerges in this playtext as discursively produced, defined by the body, and processual. Conversely, Crave and 4.48 Psychosis reject the terms through which such liberal-humanist subjectivity is represented. Through uncountable and opaque characters, subjectivity is formulated as queer, foreclosing the equation of body morphology with the sense of the self and dismantling fixed and unified notions of identity. Finally, the article interrogates to what extent the staging of the plays inevitably reproduces stable characters and normative subjectivities. Desire and recognition are considered here as key to maintaining the plays’ critique of liberal humanism. 06 2012 230 250 10.3138/md.55.2.230 10.3138/md.55.2.230 https://utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/md.55.2.230 https://utppublishing.com/doi/pdf/10.3138/md.55.2.230 4.48 Psychosis . By Kane, Sarah. Dir. James Macdonald. Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London. June 2000. Performance. 4.48 Psychosis . Kane, Sarah, By Kane, Sarah. Dir. Luciano Cáceres. Teatro Victoria, Talavera de la Reina. Jan. 2009. Performance. 4.48 Psychosis . By Kane, Sarah. Trans. Klaudyna Rozhin. Dir. Grzegorz Jarzyna. Barbican, London. Mar. 2010. Performance. (2002). 4.48 Psychosis . By Sarah Kane. Trans. Klaudyna Rozhin. Dir. Grzegorz Jarzyna. TR Warszawa, Warsaw. DVD. 10.1017/CBO9780511486005.005 10.1017/S0266464X0800002X Alternatives in the Mainstream II: Queer Theatres in Post-War Britain Busby Selina 142 2007 Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” Butler Judith 1993 Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity Butler Judith 2007 Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence Butler Judith 2006 The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection Butler Judith 1997 10.1515/9781503616295 Undoing Gender Butler Judith 2004 10.4324/9780203499627 Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left Butler Judith 136 2000 The Judith Butler Reader Butler Judith 120 2004 Cavendish, Dominic. “Verbal Assault and Battery.” Rev. of Crave , by Sarah Kane, dir. Vicky Featherstone. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Independent 15 Aug. 1998, London ed.: 13. Cleansed . By Kane, Sarah. Dir. James Macdonald. Royal Court Downstairs, London. May 1998. Performance. Crave . By Kane, Sarah. Dir. Vicky Featherstone. Royal Court Upstairs, London. Sept. 1998. Performance. The Death of Character: Perspectives on Theater after Modernism Fuchs Elinor 1996 10.2307/j.ctt2005s83 Consciousness, Literature and the Arts Gritzner Karoline 249 2006 10.1080/10486800802123617 Complete Plays Kane Sarah 105 Complete Plays Kane Sarah 2001 Complete Plays Kane Sarah 153 Complete Plays Kane Sarah 203 10.1057/9780230582224 Macaulay, Alastair (1998). Rev. of Crave , by Sarah Kane, dir. Vicky Featherstone. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Theatre Record 18.2 (): 1152. Manque . By Kane, Sarah. Dir. Bernard Sobel. Théâtre de Gennevilliers, Gennevilliers. March 2000. Performance. Nightingale, Benedict (1998). Rev. of Crave , dir. Vicky Featherstone. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Theatre Record 18.2 (): 1152. Der nicht mehr dramatische Theatertext: aktuelle Bühnenstücke und ihre dramaturgische Analyse Poschmann Gerda 1997 10.1515/9783110942415 Salino, Brigitte. “ A Gennevilliers, Sarah Kane parle d’outre-tombe [At Gennevilliers, Sarah Kane Speaks from beyond the Grave]. .” Rev. of Manque , by Sarah Kane, dir. Sobel, Bernard. Théâtre de Gennevilliers. Le Monde. Le Monde, 17 Nov. 2011. 23 Apr. 2012 <http://www.lemonde.fr> Jouer le monde: La scène et le travail de l'imaginaire. Pour Robert Abirached Sarrazac Jean-Pierre 41 2001 10.1080/1048680031000077816 “Love Me or Kill Me”: Sarah Kane and the Theatre of the Extremes Saunders Graham 2002 Anglistik und Englischuterricht Saunders Graham 123 64 2002 10.1017/CCOL0521807069.014 Theory of the Modern Drama: A Critical Edition Szondi Peter 1987 Sarah Kane in Context Waddington Julie 139 2010 Suspect Cultures: Narrative, Identity and Citation in 1990s New Drama Wallace Clare 185 2006