Posthuman Drama
The Cybernetic Subject in Twenty-First Century Playwriting
Buch in deiner Nähe kaufen
Beschreibung
Posthuman Drama classifies a new form of western playwriting emerging since 2000 which interrogates the ethical and political consequences of technocapitalist acceleration. Drawing on both technological and ecological strands of critical posthumanist thought, the book identifies how a cybernetic approach to dramatic form has been deployed by western playwrights as a means of critiquing the posthuman paradigm: a discursive practice through which humans and organic nonhumans are equated with digital code. Posthuman plays examine the embodied consequences of this paradigm through a machinic approach to language, a networked approach to characterisation, a distributed approach to dramatic agency, and an accelerated approach to spacetime. Analysed plays include A Number (2002) by Caryl Churchill; Marjorie Prime (2014) by Jordan Harrison; More Life (2025) by Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman; The Sugar Syndrome (2003) by Lucy Prebble; I Love You, Bro (2007) by Adam J. A. Cass; Dead Man’s Cell Phone (2008) by Sarah Ruhl; The Weather (2004) by Clare Pollard; Oil (2016) by Ella Hickson; and Mlima’s Tale (2018) by Lynn Nottage. These analyses are contextualised by a detailed historical overview of nonhuman agency in western drama; interviews with six Australian performance writers who have experimented with AI tools; and a reflection by the author on his own experiences writing two award-winning posthuman plays. Engaging, timely, and accessible, Posthuman Drama reveals how playwrights working within the Aristotelian tradition are interrogating the embodied consequences of technocapitalist acceleration for the self, society, and the planet.
Richard Jordan is a playwright and Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Digital Performance at the University of New England (Australia), and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. His scholarly research focuses on the intersections between technology, subjectivity, and dramatic form, and his plays have garnered several awards and honours. He lectures in theatrical modernism, writing for performance, Australian theatre, and digital content creation at UNE Sydney.
Posthuman Drama classifies a new form of western playwriting emerging since 2000 which interrogates the ethical and political consequences of technocapitalist acceleration. Drawing on both technological and ecological strands of critical posthumanist thought, the book identifies how a cybernetic approach to dramatic form has been deployed by western playwrights as a means of critiquing the posthuman paradigm: a discursive practice through which humans and organic nonhumans are equated with digital code. Posthuman plays examine the embodied consequences of this paradigm through a machinic approach to language, a networked approach to characterisation, a distributed approach to dramatic agency, and an accelerated approach to spacetime. Analysed plays include A Number (2002) by Caryl Churchill; Marjorie Prime (2014) by Jordan Harrison; More Life (2025) by Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman; The Sugar Syndrome (2003) by Lucy Prebble; I Love You, Bro (2007) by Adam J. A. Cass; Dead Man’s Cell Phone (2008) by Sarah Ruhl; The Weather (2004) by Clare Pollard; Oil (2016) by Ella Hickson; and Mlima’s Tale (2018) by Lynn Nottage. These analyses are contextualised by a detailed historical overview of nonhuman agency in western drama; interviews with six Australian performance writers who have experimented with AI tools; and a reflection by the author on his own experiences writing two award-winning posthuman plays. Engaging, timely, and accessible, Posthuman Drama reveals how playwrights working within the Aristotelian tradition are interrogating the embodied consequences of technocapitalist acceleration for the self, society, and the planet.
Examines how nine contemporary plays interrogate the ethical and political consequences of technocapitalist acceleration Focuses on four main elements: Machinic Language, Networked Character, Distributed Agency, and Accelerated Spacetime Includes a detailed historical survey of antecedent traditions as well as perspectives from contemporary practitioners
Autor*in
Richard Jordan
Themen in »Posthuman Drama«
Posthuman Dramaturgy Cyborg Technology Contemporary Theatre AI Nature Climate Crisis Theatrical Mimesis Aristotle