History Will Eat Itself: Rory Mullarkey’s Cannibals and the Terrors of End-Narratives
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Sam Haddow
Abstract
Rory Mullarkey’s Cannibals (2013), an odyssey from post-Soviet Ukraine to contemporary Britain, catalogues the destructive power of teleological historical narratives through the eyes of a protagonist “mutilated in acts of spectacular terror” (Gray 205). This article aligns Mullarkey’s play with the anti-narrative political philosophy of John Gray, criticizing their approaches as implicitly valorising the very philosophies they purport to oppose. Offering an alternative reading of Cannibals through the lens of Alain Badiou’s Rebirth of History (2012), I contend that the play opens up a space of resistance against the totalizing impulses of the present, one in which “the power of an Idea may take root” (Badiou 15).
Works Cited
Primary Literature
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© 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/München/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Special Issue: Theatre and Politics: Theatre as Cultural Intervention
- Articles
- Gender, Identity and Contemporary India: A View Through Two Plays by Mahesh Dattani
- The Value of the Tragic in Contemporary American Drama: Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss, Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County
- The World Grasped as Picture: Subjective Vision and the Embodiment of Male Gaze in Sam Shepard’s Seduced
- History Will Eat Itself: Rory Mullarkey’s Cannibals and the Terrors of End-Narratives
- Borderless Borders: Guillermo Gómez Peña’s The New World Border
- When Time Thickens and Takes on Flesh: Chronotopic Exploration of Edward Bond’s Paris Pentad Plays
- Reviews
- Julia Boll. The New War Plays: From Kane to Harris. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 183 pp., £50.00.
- Eliane Beaufils, ed. Quand la Scène Fait Appel...Le Théâtre Contemporain et le Poétique. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2014, 290 pp., € 34.00.
- Duška Radosavljević. Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, xi + 288 pp., $85.00 (hardback), $28.00 (paperback).
- Jenn Stephenson. Performing Autobiography: Contemporary Canadian Drama. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 224 pp., C$ 45.00 (cloth), C$ 45.00 e-book (EPUB format).
- Paula Deubner. “Into the Light” – Selbst und Transzendenz in den Dramen Sarah Kanes. CDE Studies Volume 22. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2012, 235 pp., € 27,50 (paperback).
- William W. Demastes. The Cambridge Introduction to Tom Stoppard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, first published 2012, ix + 166 pp., £ 50,00 (hardback), £ 15,99 (paperback).
- Harvey Young. Theatre & Race. Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, v + 80pp., $ 10.00.
- Jill Dolan. The Feminist Spectator in Action: Feminist Criticism for the Stage and the Screen. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 248 pp., $ 80.00 (hardback), $26.00 (paperback).
- Sean Carney. The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 360pp., $34.95 (paperback), $75.00 (hardback), $34.95 (ebook).
- Harvey Young, ed. The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, xix + 291 pp., $ 90.00 (hardback), $ 29.99 (paperback).
- Josephine Machon. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013, xix + 324 pp., € 22,30.
- Liz Tomlin. Acts and Apparitions: Discourses on the Real in Performance Practice and Theory, 1990–2010. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013, ix + 226 pp., £ 65.00.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Special Issue: Theatre and Politics: Theatre as Cultural Intervention
- Articles
- Gender, Identity and Contemporary India: A View Through Two Plays by Mahesh Dattani
- The Value of the Tragic in Contemporary American Drama: Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss, Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County
- The World Grasped as Picture: Subjective Vision and the Embodiment of Male Gaze in Sam Shepard’s Seduced
- History Will Eat Itself: Rory Mullarkey’s Cannibals and the Terrors of End-Narratives
- Borderless Borders: Guillermo Gómez Peña’s The New World Border
- When Time Thickens and Takes on Flesh: Chronotopic Exploration of Edward Bond’s Paris Pentad Plays
- Reviews
- Julia Boll. The New War Plays: From Kane to Harris. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 183 pp., £50.00.
- Eliane Beaufils, ed. Quand la Scène Fait Appel...Le Théâtre Contemporain et le Poétique. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2014, 290 pp., € 34.00.
- Duška Radosavljević. Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, xi + 288 pp., $85.00 (hardback), $28.00 (paperback).
- Jenn Stephenson. Performing Autobiography: Contemporary Canadian Drama. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 224 pp., C$ 45.00 (cloth), C$ 45.00 e-book (EPUB format).
- Paula Deubner. “Into the Light” – Selbst und Transzendenz in den Dramen Sarah Kanes. CDE Studies Volume 22. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2012, 235 pp., € 27,50 (paperback).
- William W. Demastes. The Cambridge Introduction to Tom Stoppard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, first published 2012, ix + 166 pp., £ 50,00 (hardback), £ 15,99 (paperback).
- Harvey Young. Theatre & Race. Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, v + 80pp., $ 10.00.
- Jill Dolan. The Feminist Spectator in Action: Feminist Criticism for the Stage and the Screen. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 248 pp., $ 80.00 (hardback), $26.00 (paperback).
- Sean Carney. The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 360pp., $34.95 (paperback), $75.00 (hardback), $34.95 (ebook).
- Harvey Young, ed. The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, xix + 291 pp., $ 90.00 (hardback), $ 29.99 (paperback).
- Josephine Machon. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013, xix + 324 pp., € 22,30.
- Liz Tomlin. Acts and Apparitions: Discourses on the Real in Performance Practice and Theory, 1990–2010. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013, ix + 226 pp., £ 65.00.
