Dramatizing Power: A Reading of Selected Plays by Alan Ayckbourn with Reference to the Works of Michel Foucault

Abstract

The concept of power is often associated with negative connotations. The researcher in this thesis presents its positive illustration as Foucault has portrayed it. With the use of multiple of his works, the researcher also presents Foucault’s concepts of knowledge, resistance, and discourse. This thesis is divided into an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The introduction is divided into two parts. The first part briefly offers a general definition to the concept of power through Foucault’s works. It also introduces the playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The second part offers a literature review and research questions. Chapter one handles the theoretical frame. It presents the Foucauldian concepts used in the analysis of Ayckbourn’s selected plays. They are power, knowledge, resistance, and discourse. Chapter two, entitled “Power and Resistance in This Is Where We Came In” studies Ayckbourn’s first play in light of Foucault’s concepts of power and resistance. It discusses the changing power relations between two groups of characters. The first group includes the storytellers who try to monopolize the power of storytelling and deny it to the second group. The second group, on the other hand, is a group of story players who resist the storytellers to regain their power of storytelling.