Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2004. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Bibliography: leaves 253-266.

Thesis (M.A.)--Baylor University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-70)

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 59-61)

Caryl Phillips’s novel Crossing the River deals with European colonialism and the consequences of it. Crossing the River is a novel which embraces characters from colonized cultures as well as characters from colonizing cultures. Following a timeline that begins in 1752 and ends in 1963, the novel shows slavery in progress as well as what transpires in the aftermath of slavery        In this essay I will argue that Caryl Phillips demonstrates the complexity of colonialism and slavery in his novel Crossing the River; he approaches the two concepts from different perspectives and shows us that colonialism and slavery are complicated concepts. Caryl Phillips uses narrative to demonstrate the negative sides of colonialism and slavery, to show that the negative aspects of the two concepts can affect not only the colonized people but also the colonizing people.        Colonialism, in its traditional sense, is present in some of the novel’s episodes but slavery, in different forms, appears in all episodes. Nevertheless, all episodes in Crossing the River have a common origin; which Phillips reminds us about by using the relationship between plot and story. Diversity is an important theme in the novel. From a narrative perspective, Crossing the River has a diversity of narrators who tell their stories as well as other persons’ stories. There are female narrators as well as male ones; some narrators are known while other narrators are unknown. The ways the episodes are told are diversified. Some of the episodes follow a chronological line (“The Pagan Coast” and “Crossing the River”) while other episodes jump back and forth in time (“West” and “Somewhere in England”). The forms of narration are diversified, not only between the individual episodes but also within some of the episodes. Crossing the River plays with diversity in several layers. The structure of the novel is as diversified as the number of narrators, a diversity of ways of dealing with the main themes results in a diversity of fates for Phillips’s characters. Caryl Phillips combines structure with content to demonstrate that colonialism and slavery are problematic concepts: the negative consequences of the two concepts can, in different ways and in different degrees, affect colonized people as well as those responsible for colonialism.

The exegesis and accompanying playscript 3606202 is concerned with how the structural framework of a play might be manipulated to help deliver a writer's response to global events. The exegesis looks at examples of writers who have responded to global events over the last several decades and examines as a case study the structure of Caryl Churchill's play Far Away. The writer then applies a similar structural blueprint to the writing of his play 3606202 and reflects on the outcomes such a structure achieved. As part of this reflection, the exegesis explores how the writer's desire to respond to global events led him to consider the impacts of structure on the sub-textual articulation of themes within a playscript. The exegesis concludes by detailing the findings of an experiment conducted at the reading of his play and its professional presentation within the Wharf2Loud season at the Sydney Theatre Company.

Caryl Churchill’s play, Love and Information, presents a shift in focus from unstable personal and political identity towards unstable logical identity, a philosophical concept that takes identity out of the realm of identity politics.. As a new play Love and Information has understandably been subject to very little scholarly analysis. This thesis situates the play within Churchill’s corpus in order to consider how the depersonalized identities of this play fit within the broader scope of Churchill’s work. Anchored in Elin Diamond’s study of gender identity in Churchill’s corpus, this thesis will further incorporate theories of logical identity as well as theories of language in order to define what I argue is Churchill’s shift towards logical identity. Through a study of both the text of Love and Information and the 2014 New York première, I conclude that Love and Information represents a shift in focus while Churchill maintains her playwriting methodology.

Freiburg i. Br., Univ., Diplomarb., 2008.

Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 2009