Analysing Sarah Kane’s Cleansed : A Brutal Spectacle of Violence and Love

Abstract

This study primarily aims to approach the play Cleansed , written by the English playwright Sarah Kane, from the perspective of violence studies. In order to do so, both the author's personal career and the artistic influences of England at the end of the 20th century have been taken into consideration. Kane's theatre is characterised by its impact on the spectator and the creation of an experience through its vision, therefore Cleansed will be exposed as part of the author's aesthetic purpose In addition, it is intended to display the cultural context of the play through three literary trends: Post-Humanism, Sartre's Existentialism and Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty. Under each of these movements, violence is developed through the characters' search for identity, love, language and the structure of the play itself. As a final goal is to distinguish the work of Cleansed as a cultural and intellectual shock that uses new methods to create violence.