Postcolonial-Ecocritical Veins in Drew Taylor's The Berlin Blues

Document Type : Brief summaries of Dissertations.

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A Postgraduate Student

Abstract

Drawing on the insights of postcolonial ecocriticism, this paper attempts an interdisciplinary reading of Drew Taylor’s play, The Berlin Blues (2008), written by a playwright of native Canadian descent. The choice of this particular play arises from the fact that it contains a good number of the elements needed to display issues such as settlers’ colonialism, return of neo-colonial interventionism in the contemporary age after the demise of the traditional colonialism, new invasive developmental projects with destructive effects on the environment. It displays interest in the environment as a whole ecosystem (including humans, non-human animals, rivers, land, etc.) in a manner that foregrounds interdependence and harmony. Despite the clear advocacy of political, social, and humanistic causes—defending the environment against impending ecological disaster, social justice, racial equality, among others—the play is still a well-formed work of art in its own right according to classical and modern literary theories. The plays advocacy verges on activism without detrimental effect to its intrinsic aesthetic value as a work of art.

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