RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

The great destruction caused by the Second World War left an immense impact on the generation of writers of the post 1950s. The English playwright and theorist Edward Bond lived a childhood in the shadow of war, bombs and exile and experienced violence and destruction at first hand. This is why in his plays he has displayed a world in which violence in central to the narrative. Bond’s theatre does hold a political stand, as he places the responsibility of transforming society on the shoulders of writers and the theatre. This political stand carries influences of Brecht which was widespread across the Europe of the post-1950’s. The responsibility Brecht placed on the theatre, his effort to create a stimulating effect on the spectator, his idea of achieving distancing via the use of various effects in the presentation of the topic, the situation and relationships by means of alienation was the groundwork for Bond’s work. The ‘aggro-effect’ technique he came up with in his early years as playwright was the result of such inspiration. Bond pursued to simultaneously present a critique of the ‘alienation effect’ introduced by Brecht and create impact which would startle and shock the spectators of his time. One of his earlier works Lear, is one such example of a text to this effect. In an age ravaged by violence, Bond rewrote Shakespeare’s King Lear, to take up another narrative of violence, and tell it in a language spoken today. In this sense concerning the matter of the idea of the theatre, Bond settles accounts with both one of the most influential figures of social theatre, his contemporary Brecht, and Shakespeare the greatest bard of all times. This study aims to take a closer look via the abovementioned accounts settled, at the element of violence in Lear and the use of the ‘aggro-effect’.