The Dystopian World of Sarah Kane’s Blasted: A Foucauldian Reading

Dystopian societies have been successfully portrayed by novelists as well as dramatists, especially during the twentieth century when people lived under severe social and political conditions that led to atrocities represented by wars, pandemics, nuclear bombs, and natural disasters. One of the best plays that reflected such societies is Sarah Kane’s Blasted (1995) which represents the worst dystopian scenario modern people can witness on stage because she portrayed different kinds of atrocities like eye-gouging, incest, rape, and cannibalism. That is why she was criticized harshly by her rivals as they accused her of being a rape-play girl looking for cheap success by selling sex and violence on the stage. It was only after her death, by committing suicide, that her plays were appreciated and re-considered as great works of art. This paper aims to investigate Blasted in the light of Foucault’s theory of power vs. resistance, madness, and sexuality as he sees modern dystopian societies as a kind of ‘hellscape’ where modern people are subject to rape, torture, violence, terrorism, suicide, and death. All these calamities can be seen in Kane’s play as it is representative of modern dystopia where people lose hope for a peaceful life.