The Deconstruction of Heroism in Contemporary English Drama: Ethical and Moral Subversions in Howard Brenton’s The Romans in Britain and Edward Bond’s Lear

الملخص

This analytical study specifically focuses on the moral and ethical subversions of heroism in contemporary British drama, represented in Howard Brenton's "The Romans in Britain" and Edward Bond's "Lear." The study employs textual-analytical and comparative-analytical methodologies, ensuring a thorough and multiperspective engagement with the plays. Textual analysis involves close textual readings, scrutinizing features such as characterization, action, structure, and the interplay of moral and ethical undercurrings in the shaping of the plays. Comparative analysis involves a juxtaposition of the two dramatists' representations of heroism, recognizing their different narrative strategies and the socio-political interrogations characteristic of each dramatist's oeuvre. The analysis reveals that Brenton's "The Romans in Britain" undertakes a deconstruction of the hegemonic discourse on heroism by portraying an array of moral ambiguities that ultimately yield political critique and subversion of the powers that be. By contrast, Bond's "Lear" showcases the losing of moral perspective by its heroes in their blind(ing) quest for justice, thus offering a radical examination of traditional heroism, revealing its inherent flaws. Both plays further complicate, thus paradoxically, recuperate and reinforce, the notion of heroism, pointing toward a problematic and potentially collapsed construct in contemporary play. In short, contemporary British Drama reveals a spectrum of post-heroic engagements, albeit often through ironic detraction of the conventional hero. The analysis underlines the necessity for extended discussion concerning these findings, as both plays grapple with a critical interrogation of the notion of heroism, exposing the futility and limitations of conventional heroism in the face of contemporary socio-political realities.