Metatheatre as political satire in Renaissance and twentieth-century English drama

This dissertation seeks to explore the aesthetic and political implications that arise from the convergence between dramatic satire and metatheatrical strategies as exemplified in The Spanish Tragedy (1582-92) The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607), The Roman Actor (1613), The Historical Register for the Year 1736 (1737) The Churchill Play (1974), A Map of the World (1982) and Our Country's Good (1988). It is frequently noted in the study that while acknowledging the artificial dimension of theatre and creating a sense of playfulness and flux, self-reflexive nature of the plays significantly enhances the impact of dramatic satire. Indeed, metatheatre becomes a very efficient vehicle for satire in theatre. This claim is supported via a number of examples from the Renaissance, eighteenth-century and twentieth-century plays where the satirical tone is largely dependent upon various metatheatrical employments, basically the play-within-the-play. In fact, metatheatrical analyses of plays from these centuries is not a new topic of study. What is specific to this dissertation is that metatheatre is not merely handled as a technical innovation, an element shattering the traditions of realist drama by foregrounding the play's self-referentiality. Instead, focusing on the symbiosis between satire and metatheatre, it aims to highlight the political and ontological dimensions of this crossover. The study argues that the interplay between satire and metatheatre addresses a stage reality where politics and theatricality are fused into one another and dismantle conventional ways of thinking and stage representation. In this respect, politics, law, class systems, social hierarchies, oppression, historiography, colonialism, Eurocentrism and neoliberalism are explored through the intersection between satirical drama and metatheatrical devices. While analysing the incorporation of satire and metatheatre, the transformation of satire, the new meanings it has gained throughout the centuries, and its flexibility are also demonstrated.