Abstract
This essay argues that Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem challenges what Mark Shucksmith terms the “visioning of rural areas by hegemonic middle-class culture” (163), which still dominates the way many British people see the countryside and is rooted in nostalgia for a neat and pretty rural idyll, cleansed of untidy (bio)diversity. The second major line of argument is that the shadow of William Blake hangs heavily over the play, and that Rooster both embodies and employs the Blakean imagination in ways that challenge dominant “hegemonic” ideas about the rural. The untidy and disruptive Rooster, and the wood that bears his name, represent a very different kind of mindscape and a very different kind of (living) landscape. Simply by his presence in the wood he symbolizes an alternative way of being in the land. It is true that Rooster’s is an imperfect echo of the mythopoetic Blakean world-view, but it is nevertheless unmistakeably Blakean, so the prologue to Jerusalem, part of the preface to Blake’s Milton: A Poem in Two Books (1808), is central to a proper understanding of the play. Rooster’s verbal combativeness and mythopoetic visions penetrate the hypocrisy behind the veneer of respectability in Flintock, and the justifications for prevailing human relationships with the land.
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The Ethics of Participation and Participation Gone Wrong
- Spoken Like a Gentleman: The Burden of the Voice in An Anonymous Woman’s MANWATCHING and Gary McNair’s Locker Room Talk
- “There is No Proof”: Fermat’s Last Theorem and Historical Reconstruction in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
- “Who Would Disagree that in a World of Trump and Putin and Boris Johnson ... Brecht Is Not the Theorist and Playwright of Our Times?”: Bertolt Brecht’s Influence on David Greig’s Work
- The Blakean Imagination and the Land in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem
- Wellesley Girl: Emotion, Democracy, and the Contemporary Dystopia
- Catastrophic Futures: Tragic Children in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman
- Approaches to Play Directing in Contemporary Nigerian Theatre: A Study of Segun Adefila and Bolanle Austen-Peters
- Reviews
- Eva Spambalg-Berend. Dramen der Abjektion: Der Umgang mit den “Mächten des Grauens” in den Theaterstücken Sarah Kanes. Trier: WVT, 2017, 273 pp., €29.90 (paperback).
- Jaclyn I. Pryor. Time Slips: Queer Temporalities, Contemporary Performance, and the Hole of History. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2017, xvi + 184 pp., $99.95 (hardback), $34.95 (paperback), $34.95 (PDF ebook).
- Alice O’Grady, ed. Risk, Participation, and Performance Practice: Critical Vulnerabilities in a Precarious World. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017, xxiv + 264 pp., €89.99 (hardback), €74.96 (PDF ebook).
- Vera Cantoni. New Playwriting at Shakespeare’s Globe. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, iii + 238 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £64.80 (PDF ebook).
- Joslin McKinney, and Scott Palmer, eds. Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, xvii + 216 pp., £63.00 (hardback), £22.99 (paperback), £19.86 (PDF ebook). Thea Brejzek, and Lawrence Wallen.The Model as Performance: Staging Space in Theatre and Architecture. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, x + 188 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £20.69 (paperback), £64.80 (PDF ebook).
- Michael Pearce. Black British Drama: A Transnational Story. London: Routledge, 2017, 228 pp., £110.00 (hardback), £29.99 (paperback), £24.99 (PDF ebook).
- Trish Reid. The Theatre of Anthony Neilson. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, viii + 215 pp., £75.00 (hardback), £18.99 (paperback), £81.00 (PDF ebook).
- David Palmer, ed. Visions of Tragedy in Modern American Drama. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, xxii + 250 pp., £65.00 (hardback), £13.99 (paperback), £11.87 (PDF ebook).
- Adam Alston, and Martin Welton, eds. Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, xv + 283 pp., £75.00 (hardback), £81.00 (PDF ebook).
- David Cameron, Rebecca Wotzko, and Michael Anderson. Drama and Digital Arts Cultures. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, vii + 332 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £64.80 (PDF ebook). Peter Eckersall, Helena Grehan, and Edward Scheer.New Media Dramaturgy: Performance, Media and New Materialism. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017, xi + 236 pp., €103.99 (hardback), €83.29 (PDF ebook).
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The Ethics of Participation and Participation Gone Wrong
- Spoken Like a Gentleman: The Burden of the Voice in An Anonymous Woman’s MANWATCHING and Gary McNair’s Locker Room Talk
- “There is No Proof”: Fermat’s Last Theorem and Historical Reconstruction in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
- “Who Would Disagree that in a World of Trump and Putin and Boris Johnson ... Brecht Is Not the Theorist and Playwright of Our Times?”: Bertolt Brecht’s Influence on David Greig’s Work
- The Blakean Imagination and the Land in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem
- Wellesley Girl: Emotion, Democracy, and the Contemporary Dystopia
- Catastrophic Futures: Tragic Children in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman
- Approaches to Play Directing in Contemporary Nigerian Theatre: A Study of Segun Adefila and Bolanle Austen-Peters
- Reviews
- Eva Spambalg-Berend. Dramen der Abjektion: Der Umgang mit den “Mächten des Grauens” in den Theaterstücken Sarah Kanes. Trier: WVT, 2017, 273 pp., €29.90 (paperback).
- Jaclyn I. Pryor. Time Slips: Queer Temporalities, Contemporary Performance, and the Hole of History. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2017, xvi + 184 pp., $99.95 (hardback), $34.95 (paperback), $34.95 (PDF ebook).
- Alice O’Grady, ed. Risk, Participation, and Performance Practice: Critical Vulnerabilities in a Precarious World. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017, xxiv + 264 pp., €89.99 (hardback), €74.96 (PDF ebook).
- Vera Cantoni. New Playwriting at Shakespeare’s Globe. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, iii + 238 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £64.80 (PDF ebook).
- Joslin McKinney, and Scott Palmer, eds. Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, xvii + 216 pp., £63.00 (hardback), £22.99 (paperback), £19.86 (PDF ebook). Thea Brejzek, and Lawrence Wallen.The Model as Performance: Staging Space in Theatre and Architecture. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, x + 188 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £20.69 (paperback), £64.80 (PDF ebook).
- Michael Pearce. Black British Drama: A Transnational Story. London: Routledge, 2017, 228 pp., £110.00 (hardback), £29.99 (paperback), £24.99 (PDF ebook).
- Trish Reid. The Theatre of Anthony Neilson. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, viii + 215 pp., £75.00 (hardback), £18.99 (paperback), £81.00 (PDF ebook).
- David Palmer, ed. Visions of Tragedy in Modern American Drama. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, xxii + 250 pp., £65.00 (hardback), £13.99 (paperback), £11.87 (PDF ebook).
- Adam Alston, and Martin Welton, eds. Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, xv + 283 pp., £75.00 (hardback), £81.00 (PDF ebook).
- David Cameron, Rebecca Wotzko, and Michael Anderson. Drama and Digital Arts Cultures. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, vii + 332 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £64.80 (PDF ebook). Peter Eckersall, Helena Grehan, and Edward Scheer.New Media Dramaturgy: Performance, Media and New Materialism. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017, xi + 236 pp., €103.99 (hardback), €83.29 (PDF ebook).