Du concept psychiatrique à la métaphore théâtrale : le miroir de l’Autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de Caryl Churchill et de Nick Gill

This article analyses the role played by psychiatry in the work of British playwrights Nick Gill and Caryl Churchill. Nick Gill’s most recent play, Mirror Teeth (2011), examines contemporary Britain’s xenophobia by reworking ethical questions and metaphors from Churchill’s early plays. His character...

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Main Author: Liliane Campos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2014-06-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4124
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author Liliane Campos
author_facet Liliane Campos
author_sort Liliane Campos
collection DOAJ
description This article analyses the role played by psychiatry in the work of British playwrights Nick Gill and Caryl Churchill. Nick Gill’s most recent play, Mirror Teeth (2011), examines contemporary Britain’s xenophobia by reworking ethical questions and metaphors from Churchill’s early plays. His characters’ masked identities and ontological insecurity bear striking similarities to Churchill’s Hospital at the Time of the Revolution (1971) and Cloud Nine (1979). Both playwrights draw their ideas from a psycho-analytical approach to post-colonial identities, basing their assessment of their characters’ conflicting identities on a symptomatic approach to the fear of the Other. This article identifies the complexes, symptoms, and fantasies that structure identities in these three plays, and suggests that theses psychiatric motifs are far from reassuring, as they can be deprived of their healing potential. This is particularly clear in Mirror Teeth, which offers us no escape from its regressive nightmare.
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language English
publishDate 2014-06-01
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series Sillages Critiques
spelling doaj-art-3b4d61bf676d494399fa8899df7c3c2f2025-01-30T13:48:03ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022014-06-011810.4000/sillagescritiques.4124Du concept psychiatrique à la métaphore théâtrale : le miroir de l’Autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de Caryl Churchill et de Nick GillLiliane CamposThis article analyses the role played by psychiatry in the work of British playwrights Nick Gill and Caryl Churchill. Nick Gill’s most recent play, Mirror Teeth (2011), examines contemporary Britain’s xenophobia by reworking ethical questions and metaphors from Churchill’s early plays. His characters’ masked identities and ontological insecurity bear striking similarities to Churchill’s Hospital at the Time of the Revolution (1971) and Cloud Nine (1979). Both playwrights draw their ideas from a psycho-analytical approach to post-colonial identities, basing their assessment of their characters’ conflicting identities on a symptomatic approach to the fear of the Other. This article identifies the complexes, symptoms, and fantasies that structure identities in these three plays, and suggests that theses psychiatric motifs are far from reassuring, as they can be deprived of their healing potential. This is particularly clear in Mirror Teeth, which offers us no escape from its regressive nightmare.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4124theatrepsychiatryChurchillethicsidentityotherness
spellingShingle Liliane Campos
Du concept psychiatrique à la métaphore théâtrale : le miroir de l’Autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de Caryl Churchill et de Nick Gill
Sillages Critiques
theatre
psychiatry
Churchill
ethics
identity
otherness
title Du concept psychiatrique à la métaphore théâtrale : le miroir de l’Autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de Caryl Churchill et de Nick Gill
title_full Du concept psychiatrique à la métaphore théâtrale : le miroir de l’Autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de Caryl Churchill et de Nick Gill
title_fullStr Du concept psychiatrique à la métaphore théâtrale : le miroir de l’Autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de Caryl Churchill et de Nick Gill
title_full_unstemmed Du concept psychiatrique à la métaphore théâtrale : le miroir de l’Autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de Caryl Churchill et de Nick Gill
title_short Du concept psychiatrique à la métaphore théâtrale : le miroir de l’Autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de Caryl Churchill et de Nick Gill
title_sort du concept psychiatrique a la metaphore theatrale le miroir de l autre dans les dramaturgies postcoloniales de caryl churchill et de nick gill
topic theatre
psychiatry
Churchill
ethics
identity
otherness
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4124
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