Dramatic Disgust
Aesthetic Theory and Practice from Sophocles to Sarah Kane
1st Edition
Published on 30. July 2020
204 pages
978-3-8394-5210-3 (ISBN)
Description
Aesthetic disgust is a key component of most classic works of drama because it has much more potential than to simply shock the audience. This first extensive study on dramatic disgust places this sensation among pity and fear as one of the core emotions that can achieve katharsis in drama. The book sets out in antiquity and traces the history of dramatic disgust through Kant, Freud, and Kristeva to Sarah Kane's in-yer-face theatre. It establishes a framework to analyze forms and functions of disgust in drama by investigating its different cognates (miasma, abjection, etc.). Providing a concise argument against critics who have discredited aesthetic disgust as juvenile attention-grabbing, Sarah J. Ablett explains how this repulsive emotion allows theatre to dig deeper into what it means to be human.
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Sarah J. Ablett has studied English literature, philosophy, and creative writing at the Universities of Hamburg, Manchester, Heidelberg, and Hildesheim, and completed her doctorate at TU Braunschweig. She has taught literary and cultural studies and was part of the research project 'Hyphenated Cultures: Contemporary British-Jewish Theatre' funded by the VolkswagenStiftung.
Content
- Cover
- Contents
- Introduction
- I. Greek Tragedy & Pollution
- The Origin of Tragedy & the Greek God Dionysus
- Disgust in the Attic Tragedy: Miasma & Dyschéreia
- I.i Plato's Banishment of the Poets in The Republic
- Spirited Disgust & the Pollution of Logos
- I.ii Aristotle's Poetics: Miasma & Katharsis
- Tragedy & Emotions
- I.iii Summary
- II. Ekel in Eighteenth- & Nineteenth-Century Aesthetic Theory
- The Senses & Disgust in Aesthetic Theory
- Horror & Disgust in Eighteenth-Century Tragedy
- II.i Kant's Aesthetic Ideas: Cognition, Sensation, Disgust
- Vital Disgust & the Sublime
- Disgust & Consumption
- Disgust & Civilisation
- II.ii Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy
- Apollonian & Dionysian Forces in Tragedy
- Science, Tragic Knowledge, & Art
- II.iii Summary
- III. The Drama of Existential Disgust & Psychoanalysis
- Sigmund Freud: Disgust as the Basis of Civilisation
- Tragic Society & the Death Drive
- III.i Tragic Existence: Disgust as an Antidote
- Jean-Paul Sartre: Disgust at Slimy Existence & the Feminine
- Georges Bataille: Heterology: The Science of Excrements
- III.ii Psychoanalysis: Approaching Abjection
- The Semiotic & the Symbolic
- Abjection
- Abjection, Jouissance, & Art
- Purifying Abjection through Art
- III.iii Summary
- IV. Disgust around the Millennium
- Sensational Disgust & Abject Art: "Sick Stuff"
- In-Yer-Face Theatre
- Ekelfernsehen & Viral New Media Content
- IV.i Contemporary Approaches to Disgust in the Natural & Social Sciences
- Psychology & Disgust
- Mirror Neurons, Disgust, & Art
- Moral Disgust & Socio-Political Hierarchies
- IV.ii Aesthetic Disgust in the Humanities
- Disgust in Art as a Matter of Life & Death
- Disgust & Imagination
- Art & the Laws of Sympathetic Magic Belief
- The Aesthetic Effect of Disgust
- IV.iii Summary
- V. Theorising Disgust for Drama Analysis
- Insights from Ancient Disgust
- Contemporary Disgust in Relation to Distaste & Abjection
- Ekel & Aesthetic Disgust
- The Aesthetic Effect of Disgust: Sublime or Sublate?
- V.i Forms of Dramatic Disgust
- 1. Semantic Fields of Disgust-Elicitation
- 2. Structures & Semiotic Modes of Disgust
- V.ii Functions & Effects of Dramatic Disgust
- Mimesis: Bodies on Stage
- Poiesis: Scene, Atmosphere, Character, Plot
- Aisthesis: Disgusted Recipients
- V.iii Summary
- VI. Case Study: Dramatic Disgust in the Works of Sarah Kane
- A "nauseating dog's breakfast of a play"
- VI.i Kane's Early Plays: Manifestations of Disgust in Blasted, Skin, Phaedra's Love & Cleansed
- Blasted: "This disgusting feast of filth"
- Skin: "English extra sausage" & Bananas
- Phaedra's Love: "fair is foul, foul is fair"
- Cleansed: "another bloody amputation"
- VI.ii Kane's Late Plays: Abject Language in Crave and 4.48 Psychosis
- Crave: "Maggots everywhere"
- 4.48 Psychosis: "we are the abjects"
- VI.iii Summary
- Conclusion
- Outlook
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
