الفهرس 
Animal Studies and TheaterOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 136 |  |  |
| | | from | 136 | | |
Abstract
The Representation of Animals in selected Plays by Edward Albee
Starting from the 90s, critics began to highlight the importance not only of creating ecological based drama, but also of rereading and reinterpreting plays from an ecocritical standpoint. Applying ecocriticism to theatre studies involves showing the political significance of elements such as landscape and animal bodies on stage. The burgeoning field of animal studies has allowed critics to examine the significance of the representation of animals in literary works. Animal studies main aim is to bring ”the question of the animal” to the forefront of the field of criticism. It also aims at examining and questioning the ideologies and the various discourses that created the gap between human and nonhuman animals. It is concerned with how animals are represented both literary and socially.
The Zoo Story (1958) and Seascape (1975) are two plays written by Edward Albee. Although animal ubiquity cannot be missed in both texts, yet the main focus of critics was usually on the human protagonists. Approaching the two plays from animal studies and posthumanist perspectives reveals the ideological connotations upon which the distinction between human and nonhuman animals is constructed.
The thesis consists of a preface, three chapters and a conclusion. Chapter 1 entitled “Theatre and Animal Studies” introduces the relation between ecocriticism and theatre as well as the emergence of the field of critical animal studies. Chapter 2 “The Animal Gaze in The Zoo Story” deals with the gaze of the animal and how it defines the relationship between human and nonhuman animals. Chapter 3 “Breaking Boundaries in Seascape” shows how that the corporeal experience can free both human and nonhuman animals from the ideological constructions that defined their relation for centuries reminding us that humans themselves are inherently animals.
This thesis is not seeking to prove that Edward Albee is writing for the sake of animals’ welfare but, it presents a new reading of plays where animals are represented in order to demonstrate how they form part of the political, ethical and ontological argument of human beings. The animal’s agency in Albee’s plays generates uncertainty and disrupts the foundations whereby human beings define and distinguish themselves. It demonstrates that animals represented in Edward Albee’s plays help in raising some ethical questions about human’s co-existence with other species. It also shows that there are inseparable links between human identity and that of an animal.