Žižekian Violence in Martin Crimp's Cruel and Tender

Abstract

Martin Crimp is regarded as a difficult dramatist to categorise since he does not obey standard theatrical and literary rules. Though his playwriting technique has a misty atmosphere, there is one thing that is definite about his theatre. Throughout his career, Crimp has utilized the horrific impacts of violence to awaken people. Highlighting the grotesque vulgarity and relentless savagery of today's society Crimp, as the dramatist of the new millennium, exposes the terrible repercussions of violence, oppression, torture, power struggle, cruelty, fear, and victimisation on fe/male bodies. Crimp nakedly exposes explicit and implicit components of violence in diverse contexts in Cruel and Tender, his adaption of Sophocles's play Trachiniae to the post/modern world. What is remarkable about adapting an ancient play into the contemporary world is to confront people with violence as a never-changing reality of human civilisations. Cruel and Tender is also notable for depicting images of war against terror in its historical circumstances and emotional violence with the purpose of a revolution and justice. The aim of this study is to examine the representation of violence in Cruel and Tender using & Zcaron;izekian subjective, symbolic, systemic, and divine violence notions.