Victims and perpetrators: Negotiating the binaries in Sarah Kane’s Phaedra’s Love

Abstract

Sarah Kane’s body of work remains vital in its appeal for fairness, as she discloses human predicaments in her society. Set in the house of Theseus; a contemporary royal family, Kane’s Phaedra’s Love problematizes two main concerns in contemporary British drama― class and gender― which are ambivalently interpreted. This study demonstrates how the underprivileged are treated in the mainstream society and assesses how they quest for self-hood in such states. Kane’s Phaedra’s Love represents two major groups of people in present-day Britain: victims and perpetrators. Like in the play, these sets of people exist in every society given that oppression, injustice and inequality occupy a great space. The privileged and the majority consider themselves powerful and superior to the “others”, not considering that everyone is powerful at his/her own level. The struggle between “the powerful” and “the weak” becomes a visible reality as the latter fight to negotiate space, make their voices heard, and recreate new identities for themselves. The New Historicist approach suits this context since it discusses power relations in the society as encapsulated in the play of Kane. Power circulates at different levels, and not only at the top. Characters that are side-lined by dominant philosophies in Kane’s Phaedra’s Love preoccupy themselves with constructing their identities and making their voices clearly heard.