Time and Tragedy in Beth Henley’s The Jacksonian

Verna A. Foster

doi:10.1515/jcde-2018-0025

Article

Time and Tragedy in Beth Henley’s The Jacksonian

Verna A. Foster

Published/Copyright: November 14, 2018

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Author Information Explore this Subject

From the journal Journal of Contemporary Drama in English Volume 6 Issue 2

Abstract

In The Jacksonian, an autobiographical play set in Mississippi in 1964, Beth Henley filters a tragic action based on the Aristotelian model through the non-linear memory of Rosy, the play’s narrator and choric figure, as she tries not to remember that her father has killed her mother. Rosy’s father, Bill—a Girardian scapegoat figure contaminated by the racist violence of the community he lives in—is the protagonist of the tragic action. But Henley focuses on its effect on Rosy. A tragic event can occur only in progressive chronological time, but by circling around the murder in her memory, Rosy creates temporal stasis until finally the pressure of denial becomes unbearable and the murder takes place. Tragic inevitability is displaced from the formally tragic action to Rosy’s memory of it. A comparison of The Jacksonian with other dramas that incorporate tragic experience within a non-linear time scheme suggests that only in memory plays can tragedy as a genre exist in non-linear time.

Keywords: Tragedy; Non-Linear Time; René Girard; Memory Play

Works Cited

Adamek, Pauline. “The Jacksonian at the Geffen—Beth Henley’s Eerie and Murderous Drama.” ArtsBeatLA, 8 Mar. 2012, www.artsbeatla.com/2012/03/the-jacksonian-geffen/. Accessed 14 May 2012.Search in Google Scholar

Aristotle. Aristotle’s Poetics. Translated by S. H. Butcher, Hill and Wang, 1961. Search in Google Scholar

Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. Grove Press, 1954.Search in Google Scholar

Brantley, Ben. “The Sweet Smell of Decay Pervades a Whodunit.” The New York Times, 15 Dec. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/theater/reviews/the-jacksonian-stars-ed-harris-at-the-acorn-theater.html. Accessed 30 Jan. 2017.Search in Google Scholar

Cabana, Donald A. “The History of Capital Punishment in Mississippi: An Overview.” Mississippi History Now. An Online Publication of the Mississippi Historical Society, Oct. 2004, www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/84/history-of-capital-punishment-in-mississippi-an-overview. Accessed 22 July 2017.Search in Google Scholar

Felski, Rita. Introduction. Rethinking Tragedy, edited by Rita Felski, Johns Hopkins UP, 2008, pp. 1–25.10.1002/9781444302790.chSearch in Google Scholar

Foster, Verna A. “Ridiculous Fraud and The Jacksonian – Beth Henley’s New Plays About the South: An Interview.” The Southern Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 1, Fall 2012, pp. 43–57. Search in Google Scholar

Foster, Verna A. The Name and Nature of Tragicomedy. Ashgate, 2004.Search in Google Scholar

Girard, René. Violence and the Sacred. Translated by Patrick Gregory, Johns Hopkins UP, 1977.Search in Google Scholar

Golden, Leon. Aristotle on Tragic and Comic Mimesis. Scholars Press, 1992. Search in Google Scholar

Henley, Beth. The Jacksonian. Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 2014.Search in Google Scholar

Henley, Beth. “The Jacksonian.” Feb. 29, 2012. TS.Search in Google Scholar

Hodgins, Paul. “Ed Harris, Bill Pullman Shine in Henley’s Bloody, Brilliant ‘The Jacksonian’.” Orange County Register, 17 Feb. 2012, www.ocregister.com/articles/henley-340664-jacksonian-bill.html. Accessed 14 May 2012.Search in Google Scholar

McNulty, Charles. “Theater Review: ‘The Jacksonian’ at the Geffen.” Los Angeles Times, 17 Feb. 2012, latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2012/02/theater-review. Accessed 14 May 2012.Search in Google Scholar

Meisel, Myron. “The Jacksonian: Theater Review.” The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Feb. 2012, www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/jacksonian-theater-review. Accessed 14 May 2012.Search in Google Scholar

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Penguin Books, 1976.Search in Google Scholar

Miller, Arthur. “Introduction to the Collected Plays.” Reprinted in The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller, edited by Robert A. Martin, Viking Press, 1978, pp. 113–170.Search in Google Scholar

Parks, Suzan-Lori. “Possession.” The America Play and Other Works. Theatre Communications Group, 1995, pp. 3–5. 10.5040/9781636701677Search in Google Scholar

Parks, Suzan-Lori. “The America Play.” The America Play and Other Works. Theatre Communications Group, 1995. 10.5040/9781636701677Search in Google Scholar

Pfister, Manfred. The Theory and Analysis of Drama. Translated by John Halliday, Cambridge UP, 1991.Search in Google Scholar

Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia. Faber and Faber, 1993.Search in Google Scholar

Vincentelli, Elizabeth. “Life Heads South in ‘The Jacksonian’.” New York Post, 7 Nov. 2013, nypost.com/2013/11/07/life-heads-south-in-the-jacksonian/. Accessed 30 Jan. 2017.Search in Google Scholar

Weinert-Kendt, Rob. “Southern Without the Comfort.” The New York Times, 11 Jan. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/theater/in-the-jacksonian-beth-henley. Accessed 14 May 2012.Search in Google Scholar

Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, vol. 1. New Directions, 1971. Search in Google Scholar

Zvonkov, Dmitry. “Off-Broadway Theater Review: The Jacksonian (Acorn Theatre).” Stage and Cinema, 7 Nov. 2013, www.stageandcinema.com/2013/11/07/the-jacksonian-acorn-theatre/. Accessed 30 Jan. 2017. Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2018-11-14

Published in Print: 2018-11-07

You are currently not able to access this content.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/jcde-2018-0025

Keywords for this article

Tragedy; Non-Linear Time; René Girard; Memory Play