A Foucauldian Reading of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good in a Socio-Political Context

Abstract

One of the pioneering women dramatists of British literature, Timberlake Wertenbaker provides both a criticism of post-war Britain and propaganda of the ameliorating function of theatre in her play Our Country’s Good (1988). As a play based on the novel The Playmaker (1987) by Thomas Keneally, Our Country’s Good builds upon the issue of redemptive effects of theatre by portraying a group of convicts on a ship that takes them to Australia in the eighteenth century. Our Country’s Good portrays different authority figures consisting of those who believe in traditional means of punishment and who suggest the possibility of redemption through theatre as an alternative to severe punishment. It is possible to analyse the conflicting views of officers concerning the appropriate punishment methods of the convicts from a Foucauldian perspective. This reading draws on Foucault’s proposal of a penal reform that requires the use of carceral transformation through work and exercise resulting in the correction of delinquents’ behaviour. This paper focuses on the social function of punishment and analyses the representation of the conflation between theatre and punishment in Wertenbaker’s play in light of the dominant ideology concerning these issues in Britain in the Thatcher years.

Keywords

• Timberlake Wertenbaker
• Our Country’s Good
• Foucault
• Thatcher

Timberlake Wertenbaker’ın Our Country’s Good [Ülkemizin İyiliği] Adlı Oyununun Sosyopolitik Çerçevede Foucault’cu Okuması

Abstract

İngiliz edebiyatının önde gelen kadın oyun yazarlarından biri olan Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country’s Good (1988) [Ülkemizin İyiliği] adlı oyununda hem savaş sonrası İngiltere’ye yönelik bir eleştiri hem de tiyatronun iyileştirici işlevi hakkında bir propaganda sunar. Thomas Keneally'nin The Playmaker (1987) adlı romanından esinlenilen bir oyun olan Our Country’s Good, on sekizinci yüzyılda Avustralya'ya götüren bir gemide bir grup mahkûmun yaşadıklarını canlandırarak tiyatronun iyileştirici etkilerini konu edinir. Our Country’s Good, geleneksel cezalandırma yöntemlerine inanan ve ağır cezaya alternatif olarak tiyatro yoluyla kurtuluş olasılığını öne sürenlerden oluşan farklı otorite figürlerini ele alır. Hükümlülere uygun cezalandırma yöntemleri konusunda görevlilerin çelişkili görüşlerini Foucault’cu bir bakış açısıyla incelemek mümkündür. Bu okuma, Foucault'nun, iş ve egzersiz yoluyla suçluların davranışlarının düzeltilmesi anlamına gelen ceza reformu önerisine dayanmaktadır. Bu makale, ceza kavramının toplumsal işlevine odaklanmakta ve Thatcher yıllarında İngiltere'de bu konulara ilişkin egemen ideolojinin ışığında Wertenbaker'in oyununda tiyatro ve ceza arasındaki ilişkinin temsilini analiz etmektedir.

Keywords

• Timberlake Wertenbaker
• Our Country’s Good
• Foucault
• Thatcher

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