Historical perspective in David Hare's drama.

Among post-war British playwrights, David Hare possesses an unparalleled sensitivity to the emotional costs of individual dissent and survival in a society in decline, yet increasingly resistant to change. His special talent is the ability to limn national public realities in the affective capacities of individuals. This dissertation pursues an historical analysis, for it is impossible to underst and the connections between the private and public dimensions in his work without a clear underst and ing of post-war British history. The first three chapters focus on the seven plays and two films set in Engl and which chart the progressive depletion of hope for social and political change. I demonstrate how disturbing national implications arise from the way Hare counterpoints private emotional realities such as madness, suicide, repression, and love to specific historical contexts. In Licking Hitler, for instance, Archie Maclean's failure to act on his desire for a socialist transformation of society during the Second World War (a failure symptomatic of his repression of love for Anna Seaton) emerges as the failure of the nation as a whole by the end of the film. In Plenty, Hare presents a scathing commentary on Britain in the 50s by placing each stage of Susan Traherne's slow descent into madness within specific historical and ideological conjunctions. In Hare's last works set in Engl and --Dreams of Leaving (1979) and Wetherby (1984)--the disturbing legacy of Thatcher's attack on public and collective values can be seen in the alienation of individuals from each other, from their past, from memory, and from the future. Chapter Four examines the Asian plays--Fanshen, Saigon: Year of the Cat, and A Map of the World. The assumption governing my analysis of these plays is that they are interesting insofar as they illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of Hare's work about Engl and . His sensitivity to English emotional reflexes and his knowledge of English history actually define his limitations when writing plays about non-English characters in non-English contexts. A simplistic and reductive h and ling of both history and character mar the Asian plays.Ph.D.Modern literatureUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161792/1/8812886.pd