Character Consciousness in Modernist and Postmodernist Plays: An Exploration Through Playwriting

Abstract

In extracting the textual basis from which these effects are derived, an examination of the literary and social context in which these works emerged is likewise offered as a means of gleaning a sense of why such characters emerged as they did in this period of theatre’s evolution. Resulting from this dissection, a taxonomy of these specific traits have then been compiled as a sort of template upon which to build characters or a similar effect and affect through the practice of playwriting.

Ultimately, these components then serve as the foundation for two original dramatic works meant to represent these abstractions made through analysis in the practiced form of playwriting. Each dramatic work is accompanied by a reflective analysis of the process of creative writing and an assessment of discoveries made about the construction of character consciousness.