120088 AR Look Back In Anger- Rioting Against Alienation in the Late 50s, 70s, 90s (2007W)

In this workshop we will discuss plays, novels and films which all deal with a young male or female protagonist rebelling aggressively against conservative social (bourgoise) structures and thereby voicing a deep alienation of self. Interestingly, several ideological and textual parallels emerge between the 50s, 70s, 90s and it will be a major task to analyse the cultural context (e.g. socio-political changes, development of consumerism, gender & education) to explain for similarities and differences.
While looking for parallels between Osborne's rebellion against theatrical convention and Kane's "in-yer-face"- theater of the 90s, Palahniuk's schizophrenic hero connects us both to Plath's and Kane's protagonists. We will also employ a gender-comparative approach and analyse whether the aggressive struggle constitutes itself for the female protagonists in different terms than the male protagonists, rioting in traumatic loss of the fathers (Osbourne, Palahniuk). Generally, the focus is directed on an analysis of the ways this struggle is carried out in the protagonist's split mind, a war-like struggle with society, a battling relation between patient and doctor, and in heterosexual love-and-hate relationships. Theoretical parameters to master-slave dialectics to explain for (self-)destructive aggression (against society, the sexual same or other, the self) in terms of a sign of failure of communication and a bleak desire make oneself understood.
In additional evening movie-sessions (dates will be announced), we will watch recordings of theatre performances and film-adaptations of the texts and trace the topic in Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979) and James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted (2000).