Author Topic: Shakespearean influences? Miriam  (Read 7315 times)

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Re: Shakespearean influences? David
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2007, 10:26:08 PM »
There are numerous Shakespearean allusions in Sarah Kane's plays...but if you're looking at "Blasted" then the most obvious is the whole business of being blinded, a la Gloucester losing his eyes in "King Lear" - that whole oxymoron of "you have to be blind to see properly", "you have to be deaf to be able to hear", "you have to be a beggar before you can understand being a king". If you look at Shakespeare's tragedies, especially the most emotionally unbearable ones like "Lear" and "Titus Andronicus", you find an element that's vastly similar to one in Sarah Kane's plays - the idea of redemptive violence, of character journeys in which CRUELTY and COMPASSION are two of the most important elements. It's why the endings of both "Lear" and "Blasted" are so beautiful and moving in spite of how devestatingly awful they are - the acts of kindness amidst tragedy and sorrow.

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« Last Edit: September 14, 2007, 12:22:00 PM by Iain Fisher »

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Shakespearean influences? Miriam
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2007, 10:25:32 PM »
I'm a third-year Dutch student of English literature and am taking a course on Modern British Drama. We also have to read Blasted, which is why I am here. I have to write an essay about Shakespearean inlfuences on modern playwrights. I have to consider in what way and why the modern playwright is rewriting Shakespeare ans show why he or she is engaging in a dialogue with the earlier play. It's not that I'm asking you to do my assignment for me, I was just wondering whether anyone had any thoughts to help me get started, because as usual, I don't know where to begin... Thanks in advance, Miriam

Archive 10-6-2002
« Last Edit: September 14, 2007, 12:21:35 PM by Iain Fisher »