CLOUD NINE IN RELATION TO EPIC THEATRE

Yıl 2015, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 2, 136 - 144, 01.12.2015

Pınar Yüksel

Öz

Brecht is
considered the founder of epic theatre. With this theatrical attitude, Brecht
aims to show that realism which is imposed on people by bourgeois ideology is
not the ultimate truth because reality changes in the hands of the dominant
bourgeois ideology. Brecht’s basic influence in creating this specific
theatrical attitude is Marx, and he has developed certain techniques such as
‘historification’, ‘cross-casting’ and ‘doubling’ to achieve his aim in the
light of Marxist doctrines. With these techniques, Brecht tries to inform the
audience by revealing social injustice as if they were unnatural and surprising
to make the audience question the situation and take action for social change.
In other words, Brecht uses these techniques to create the alienation effect.
The function of the alienation effect is to make the audience aware that they
are actually watching a play in a theatre and to keep them alert for critical
thinking rather than emotional involvement. Caryl Churchill has used epic
theatre of Brecht as a model for her play, Cloud
Nine to make the audience raise voice against oppression rather than accept
the illusion in relation to the concepts of gender and race. With the techniques
of epic theatre, Churchill represents how people are exposed to rules and norms
according to their bodies and colours of their bodies, so the audience is able
to see how power relations are produced and maintained in relation to the
concepts of gender and race. Thus, this study intends to analyse the techniques
of epic theatre that are adopted by Churchill in her play, Cloud Nine in order to demonstrate the concepts of gender and race
as constructs. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

Brecht, epic theatre, alienation effect, Caryl Churchill, gender and race as constructs

Kaynakça

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