Hysteria, Trauma and Melancholia : Performative Maladies in Contemporary Anglophone Drama

Hysteria, trauma and melancholia are not only powerful tropes in contemporary culture, they are also prominent in the theatre. As the first study in its field, Hysteria, Trauma and Melancholia explores the characteristics and concerns of the Drama of Hysteria, Trauma and Melancholia through in-depth readings of representative plays. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Hysteria, trauma, and melancholia as cultural tropes......Page 10 Hysteria, trauma, and melancholia as performative maladies......Page 13 Performance and performativity: From termini technici to umbrella terms......Page 19 The theatre metaphor in Butler’s performativity theory......Page 22 Can performativity materialise as performance?......Page 26 Hysteria: Theory and theatre......Page 36 Anna Furse: Augustine (Big Hysteria) (1991)......Page 51 Kim Morrissey: Dora: A Case of Hysteria (1993)......Page 69 Terry Johnson: Hysteria or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis (1993)......Page 84 Hysteria as performative malady......Page 98 Trauma concepts, trauma culture......Page 102 Victoria Hardie: Sleeping Nightie (1989)......Page 111 Sarah Daniels: Beside Herself (1990)......Page 123 Phyllis Nagy: Butterfly Kiss (1994)......Page 137 Claire Dowie: Easy Access (for the Boys) (1998)......Page 148 Trauma as performative malady......Page 165 Concepts of melancholia: From black bile to melancholic incarnation......Page 170 David Auburn: Proof (2000)......Page 180 Marina Carr: Portia Coughlan (1996)......Page 193 Sarah Kane: Cleansed (1998)......Page 207 Melancholia as performative malady......Page 221 Conclusion: The Drama of Performative Malady......Page 224 Notes......Page 234 Works Cited......Page 268 Index......Page 292 "Hysteria, trauma and melancholia have not only become powerful tropes in modern-day culture at large; they are also prominent in the theatre. How do contemporary plays employ these concepts? How does the staging of these 'disorders' affect the aesthetics of the plays? What exchange relations between theory and theatre can be traced? Christina Wald pursues such questions in this new study, establishing the characteristics and concerns of 'The Drama of Hysteria', 'Trauma Drama' and 'The Drama of Melancholia' through in-depth readings of works by playwrights such as Anna Furse, Jerry Johnson, Sarah, Daniels, Phylis Nagy, Claire Dowie, David Auburn, Marina Carr and Sarah Kane. Conceptualising hysteria, trauma and melancholia as 'performative maladies', Wald educes an exciting interaction of theatrical performance, psychiatric and psychoanalytic theory, and the theory of gender performativity."--Jacket