This thesis presents a close analysis of one of the ageless discourses of human life &ndash / apocalypse, or the End &ndash / within the highly controversial In-Yer-Face drama of the 1990s British stage. The study particularly argues that there is a strong apocalyptic sense in the plays of the decade, and it discovers that the apocalyptic representation within these plays varies. Five plays by three prominent playwrights of the decade are used to illustrate and expand the focus. After a detailed examination of the apocalyptic discourse, it is claimed that Mark Ravenhill&rsquo / s Shopping and F***ing and Faust is Dead are based on certain philosophical ideas of the End, Anthony Neilson&rsquo / s Normal and Penetrator reveal the apocalyptic through an extreme use of violence, and Sarah Kane&rsquo / s 4.48 Psychosis comingles representations of the apocalyptic and psychological trauma.

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The gay male emerged as a visible public consumer during 1990s, when the LGBTQ movement in the United Kingdom and the United States was marked by conflicting commercial and political motives, heightened by the AIDS crisis. The cultural tension surrounding the gay male subject was reflected through various literary expressions. In the United Kingdom Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking (1996), as part of the in-yer-face theatre, exploded in the face of the bourgeoisie. In the US America Dennis Cooper’s highly publicised George Miles Cycle (1989-2000), was followed by The Sluts (2004) as part of the transgressive literature, provoking both straight and gay communities. Through an analysis of themes such as capitalism, commerce, hyperreality, internalised fear, desire, and violence in the works, an alternative image of the gay male is distinguished. This is an image of the gay male subject that is complex, multi-faceted, contradictory and polyvalent. The characters relate differently to the hegemonic hyperreal role model, but are exposed to the same social structure that dictates their living conditions and positioning them as objects possible to practice violence on. The works provide a widened and complicated image the public image of the gay male. Their countercultural narratives trace how the gay male subject have been affected by the heteronormative society. When the provided stereotype is too narrow to express the burden and the joy of the contemporary gay male subject, alternatives, like the depictions by Ravenhill and Cooper, may allow the subject to fully possess the gay experiences of pain, sorrow and anger that he has been forced to bear. This research explores how the violence within the texts holds a liberating potential.