Written to death: Sarah Kane and thanatopoetic performative writing
Sarah Kane, Performative Writing, Thanatopoetic.
This research is the result of a theoretical/analytical reflexion on the dramaturgical work of the english writer Sarah Kane. The way she structures and articulates, in her work, an incessant dialogue with the dead (the dramaturgical tradition), about the dead (the different notions and ideas about death in urban life), and to the ones that are going to die, i.e. herself in an autobiographical register. The work focuses, specifically, at the analysis of her three last plays: Cleansed (1998), Crave (1998), and 4.48 Psychosis (2000). The particular interests of this work are the notions of writing and performative writing applied to the analysis and contextualization of Kane’s work at the theatre history, since those notions allow the comprehension and approach of the plays through a performative bias. The study about death will be conducted with the analysis of the writings, in its direct theme approach, or through references, quotations and metaphors used by the playwright to elaborate her ‘Death poetic’, or Thanatopoetic. This work also identifies in Kane an author that pays tribute to the historical lineage of the Absurd theatre, without officially recognizing or assuming such affiliation, but instead transcending it with the overcoming of what was her biggest intent; the annihilation of and escape from the theatrical language.