Ethical Speculations in Contemporary British Theatre

This wide-ranging volume is the first to offer a comprehensive critical examination of the intersections between contemporary ethical thought and post-1989 British playwriting. After an introductory chapter that offers a vital contextualizing account of the rise of ethics within humanities discourse and establishes the internal logic of the collection's four-part structure, the subsequent chapters roam across varied theatrical and conceptual territory with discernible constellations of engagement with notions of witnessing and the 'Other', with processes of memory and the dynamics of responsibility, with precarity and Derridean undecidability, with the arguable tension between ethics and politics, and with the legacies of violence and the possibilities of intimacy. The volume's coverage of a large number of plays and playwrights, international range of contributors, theoretical rigour and original argumentation make it a key point of reference for students and researchers working in this broad field.

Mireia Aragay is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Theatre Studies at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and Life Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, UK. Her research interests focus on contemporary British theatre, film adaptation and critical theory. She is editor of Books in Motion: Adaptation, Intertextuality, Authorship (2005) and co-editor of British Theatre of the 1990s: Interviews with Directors, Playwrights, Critics and Academics (2007).

Enric Monforte is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Theatre Studies at the University of Barcelona, Spain. He specializes in Caryl Churchill and contemporary British theatre, film studies and critical theory, with a special focus on gender and sexuality. He is co-editor of British Theatre of the 1990s: Interviews with Directors, Playwrights, Critics and Academics (2007).