This thesis seeks to explore the ways in which Caryl Churchill has utilised existing dramatic structural models in six of her text-based stage plays. The study takes the three dramaturgical models most commonly found in Churchill's work, Brechtian epic, farce and absurdism and examines how the playwright appropriates these, adapting them to new content, and ultimately subverting them; transmuting their qualities into new innovative form. The study asserts the right of the playwright to use all of the dramaturgical knowledge at her* disposal against a background of theoretical writing, some of which attempts to attach an ethical or moral status to individual dramaturgical theories. This study concludes that no dramaturgical form is inherently moral or immoral, rather, it is the context in which it is used that determines the success and ethical status of a dramatic structural form in any given piece of drama.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:633210 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Kelly, Helen |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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