Identity and Alienation in Modern English and American Theatre: A Comparative Study in Light of Cultural and Postcolonial Criticism

Abstract

This research explores the themes of identity and alienation in modern English and American theatre through a comparative study of selected texts written during the twentieth century and beyond, within evolving social and cultural contexts. The study focuses on the representations of individuals and groups experiencing identity crises and alienation from themselves, their communities, or their places, whether due to the colonial experience, class and racial conflicts, or the transformations of modernity and postmodernity. The study employs a cultural and postcolonial critical perspective to understand how these theatrical texts generate and re-enact these tensions on stage.

The research utilizes a comparative analytical approach, combining texts from English theatre (Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Caryl Churchill) and American theatre (Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson) to explore the similarities in the existential experience of alienation and the differences in theatrical discourse within each cultural context. The research also explores how theatre contributes to questioning fixed conceptions of identity and opens up multiple possibilities for redefining the self in the face of oppression, marginalization, or oblivion.

The research seeks to demonstrate how theatre becomes a tool of cultural resistance and a platform for renegotiating concepts of belonging, difference, and collective memory in a world of accelerating social, political, and cultural transformations.