Between Excess and Subtraction: Scenographic Violence in Howard Barker’s Found in the Ground

The article examines the violence produced by the scenography of Howard Barker's Found in the Ground, which emerges out of the play’s formal experimentation. Thematically, the play is rife with violence, such as former Nuremberg judge Toonelhuis’ consumption of the remains of high-ranking Nazis...

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Main Author: Lara Maleen Kipp
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2017-03-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4830
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author Lara Maleen Kipp
author_facet Lara Maleen Kipp
author_sort Lara Maleen Kipp
collection DOAJ
description The article examines the violence produced by the scenography of Howard Barker's Found in the Ground, which emerges out of the play’s formal experimentation. Thematically, the play is rife with violence, such as former Nuremberg judge Toonelhuis’ consumption of the remains of high-ranking Nazis he sentenced to death, the continuous burning of books and the retelling of various murders by the war criminal Knox. Found in the Ground re-visions the collective European memory of the Holocaust; this thematic violence is expanded and subverted by scenographic means, radically reimagining the historical context. The particularity of the spatio-temporal, audio-visual rendering of violence in Barker’s text is the focus of this article. The article relates the play to Artaud’s conception of cruelty and to Lyotard’s thinking on the sublime. It contextualises the play through Barker’s theoretical writings, Lingis’ notion of catastrophic time (2000) and Aronson’s proposition of the stage as an abyss (2005).
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language English
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spelling doaj-art-53e0f3e520af46fbbc4f9945ab897dc72025-01-30T13:47:54ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022017-03-012210.4000/sillagescritiques.4830Between Excess and Subtraction: Scenographic Violence in Howard Barker’s Found in the GroundLara Maleen KippThe article examines the violence produced by the scenography of Howard Barker's Found in the Ground, which emerges out of the play’s formal experimentation. Thematically, the play is rife with violence, such as former Nuremberg judge Toonelhuis’ consumption of the remains of high-ranking Nazis he sentenced to death, the continuous burning of books and the retelling of various murders by the war criminal Knox. Found in the Ground re-visions the collective European memory of the Holocaust; this thematic violence is expanded and subverted by scenographic means, radically reimagining the historical context. The particularity of the spatio-temporal, audio-visual rendering of violence in Barker’s text is the focus of this article. The article relates the play to Artaud’s conception of cruelty and to Lyotard’s thinking on the sublime. It contextualises the play through Barker’s theoretical writings, Lingis’ notion of catastrophic time (2000) and Aronson’s proposition of the stage as an abyss (2005).https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4830sublimeHoward Barkerviolencedramatic textAlphonso LingisJean-François Lyotard
spellingShingle Lara Maleen Kipp
Between Excess and Subtraction: Scenographic Violence in Howard Barker’s Found in the Ground
Sillages Critiques
sublime
Howard Barker
violence
dramatic text
Alphonso Lingis
Jean-François Lyotard
title Between Excess and Subtraction: Scenographic Violence in Howard Barker’s Found in the Ground
title_full Between Excess and Subtraction: Scenographic Violence in Howard Barker’s Found in the Ground
title_fullStr Between Excess and Subtraction: Scenographic Violence in Howard Barker’s Found in the Ground
title_full_unstemmed Between Excess and Subtraction: Scenographic Violence in Howard Barker’s Found in the Ground
title_short Between Excess and Subtraction: Scenographic Violence in Howard Barker’s Found in the Ground
title_sort between excess and subtraction scenographic violence in howard barker s found in the ground
topic sublime
Howard Barker
violence
dramatic text
Alphonso Lingis
Jean-François Lyotard
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4830
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