The Limits of the Goat Song in Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia?
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Michael M. Wagoner
Michael M. Wagoner is a doctoral candidate in English literature at Florida State University. He is currently completing his dissertation, which examines interruptions as theatrical structures that illuminate dynamic power relationships within dramatic literature. His work usually focuses on early modern playwrights, especially William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, and Ben Jonson. He holds a MLitt and a MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University in association with the American Shakespeare Center. During his time there, he directed, acted, and served as dramaturg on several productions. His published critical work has also appeared in New Theatre Quarterly and Shakespeare Bulletin.
Abstract
Both critical discussion and performance reviews of Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (2003) focus on the play’s ambiguous genre. Albee’s subtitle “(Notes toward a definition of tragedy)” yokes the play to a consideration of that ancient dramatic form and only further confuses the responses to the play’s genre. However, in the explorations of the play thus far, no one has considered how Albee’s texts engage with the specifics of that subtitle: namely, “notes toward” and “definition.” This article investigates how Albee uses the idea of definition as an asymptotic limit to explore the concept of tragedy as a genre. By engaging the theories of both Aristotle and Nietzsche among others, Albee’s play ultimately demonstrates its own inability to come to terms with a goal of defining tragedy. Furthermore, the play’s habitual usage of puns and other language games indicates how the attempts to be precise with language are ultimately futile in their ability to establish comprehension among people. The play’s use of precise and imprecise language exemplifies the “toward”-ness of the subtitle that approaches the limit that the genre “tragedy” represents. The play then becomes a note-book of sorts that only offers ideas, moving toward the asymptote of a definition of tragedy, while ultimately illustrating the inability of anyone to comprehend the concept, the genre, or each other.
About the author
Michael M. Wagoner is a doctoral candidate in English literature at Florida State University. He is currently completing his dissertation, which examines interruptions as theatrical structures that illuminate dynamic power relationships within dramatic literature. His work usually focuses on early modern playwrights, especially William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, and Ben Jonson. He holds a MLitt and a MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University in association with the American Shakespeare Center. During his time there, he directed, acted, and served as dramaturg on several productions. His published critical work has also appeared in New Theatre Quarterly and Shakespeare Bulletin.
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Staging Reverberations of Past Events: A Documentation and Analysis of the Poetics and Politics of Sibikwa Theatre’s Chapter 2, Section 9
- “Born in the Wrong Body:” The Articulation of Sexual Self-Perception in Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis
- Moving Women Centre Stage: Structures of Feminist-Tragic Feeling
- The Limits of the Goat Song in Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia?
- Between You and Me and the More-than-Human World: Ritual and Reference in Jez Butterworth’s The River
- Flying? Falling? – Conflicting Representations of Disability in Kevin Kerr’s Skydive (2007) and Brad Fraser’s Kill Me Now (2013)
- Mobile People, Weapons, and Data Streams; Mobile Audiences and Theatre Spaces: Rimini Protokoll’s Situation Rooms as a Globalised Theatre Experience
- Reviews
- Dorothy Chansky. Kitchen Sink Realisms: Domestic Labor, Dining, and Drama in American Theatre. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2015, 291 pp., $55 (paperback, PDF ebook).
- Áine Phillips, ed. Performance Art in Ireland: A History. London: Live Art Development Agency/ Intellect Books, 2015, 288 pp., £25.
- Sandra Umathum, and Benjamin Wihstutz, eds. Disabled Theater. Zurich: Diaphanes, 2015, vii + 245pp., € 24,95.
- Andy Lavender. Performance in the Twenty-First Century: Theatres of Engagement. London: Routledge, 2016, xii + 235 pp., £ 80 (hardback), £ 24.99 (paperback).Florian Malzacher, ed. Not Just a Mirror: Looking for the Political Theatre of Today. Berlin: Alexander Verlag/Live Art Development Agency, 2015, 195 pp., € 14.90 (paperback), € 9.99 (PDF ebook).
- Emma Creedon. Sam Shepard and the Aesthetics of Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, xi + 199 pp., $90.00.
- Martin Middeke, Peter-Paul Schnierer, and Greg Homann, eds. The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary South African Theatre. London: Bloomsbury, 2015, vii + 384 pp., £70.
- Causey, Matthew, Emma Meehan, and Néill O’Dwyer, eds. The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology: Through the Virtual, Towards the Real. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, v + 242 pp., $90.00 (hardback), $69.99 (PDF ebook).
- Maaike Bleeker, Jon Foley Sherman, and Eirini Nedelkopoulou, eds. Performance and Phenomenology: Traditions and Transformations. Routledge, 2015, x + 254 pp., £ 90.
- Cristina Delgado-García. Rethinking Character in Contemporary British Theatre: Aesthetics, Politics, Subjectivity. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, xii + 228 pp., € 99.95 (hardcover, PDF ebook).
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Staging Reverberations of Past Events: A Documentation and Analysis of the Poetics and Politics of Sibikwa Theatre’s Chapter 2, Section 9
- “Born in the Wrong Body:” The Articulation of Sexual Self-Perception in Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis
- Moving Women Centre Stage: Structures of Feminist-Tragic Feeling
- The Limits of the Goat Song in Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia?
- Between You and Me and the More-than-Human World: Ritual and Reference in Jez Butterworth’s The River
- Flying? Falling? – Conflicting Representations of Disability in Kevin Kerr’s Skydive (2007) and Brad Fraser’s Kill Me Now (2013)
- Mobile People, Weapons, and Data Streams; Mobile Audiences and Theatre Spaces: Rimini Protokoll’s Situation Rooms as a Globalised Theatre Experience
- Reviews
- Dorothy Chansky. Kitchen Sink Realisms: Domestic Labor, Dining, and Drama in American Theatre. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2015, 291 pp., $55 (paperback, PDF ebook).
- Áine Phillips, ed. Performance Art in Ireland: A History. London: Live Art Development Agency/ Intellect Books, 2015, 288 pp., £25.
- Sandra Umathum, and Benjamin Wihstutz, eds. Disabled Theater. Zurich: Diaphanes, 2015, vii + 245pp., € 24,95.
- Andy Lavender. Performance in the Twenty-First Century: Theatres of Engagement. London: Routledge, 2016, xii + 235 pp., £ 80 (hardback), £ 24.99 (paperback).Florian Malzacher, ed. Not Just a Mirror: Looking for the Political Theatre of Today. Berlin: Alexander Verlag/Live Art Development Agency, 2015, 195 pp., € 14.90 (paperback), € 9.99 (PDF ebook).
- Emma Creedon. Sam Shepard and the Aesthetics of Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, xi + 199 pp., $90.00.
- Martin Middeke, Peter-Paul Schnierer, and Greg Homann, eds. The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary South African Theatre. London: Bloomsbury, 2015, vii + 384 pp., £70.
- Causey, Matthew, Emma Meehan, and Néill O’Dwyer, eds. The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology: Through the Virtual, Towards the Real. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, v + 242 pp., $90.00 (hardback), $69.99 (PDF ebook).
- Maaike Bleeker, Jon Foley Sherman, and Eirini Nedelkopoulou, eds. Performance and Phenomenology: Traditions and Transformations. Routledge, 2015, x + 254 pp., £ 90.
- Cristina Delgado-García. Rethinking Character in Contemporary British Theatre: Aesthetics, Politics, Subjectivity. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, xii + 228 pp., € 99.95 (hardcover, PDF ebook).
