@article{ART003197311},
author={Sung Hee Choi},
title={The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End},
journal={Journal of Modern English Drama},
issn={1226-3397},
year={2025},
volume={38},
number={1},
pages={83-113}
TY - JOUR
AU - Sung Hee Choi
TI - The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End
JO - Journal of Modern English Drama
PY - 2025
VL - 38
IS - 1
PB - 한국현대영미드라마학회
SP - 83
EP - 113
SN - 1226-3397
AB - This paper regards the reimagining and restaging of catastrophe as central to Anthropocene dramaturgy and aims to examine this practice within the historical context of dramatic theory and actual theatre performance. After critically scrutinizing the dominant apocalyptic narratives and assessing the ecological limitations inherent in the form of classical tragedy and realism, the study analyzes three works—Dimanche, The Fisherman’s Nucleus, and Far Away—as cases of Anthropocene dramaturgy that reconstruct catastrophe through a communal imagination encompassing both human and non-human beings. These works depart from the Aristotelian trajectory by reconfiguring catastrophe as an ongoing, unresolved, “collective” event, within which moments of revelation for new beginnings are suggested. The depiction of catastrophe with non-human beings participating as agents rather than mere background or props dismantles anthropocentrism and reveals that humans share agency with a multitude of other beings. The open-ended conclusions common to all three works transform the instability and chaos into a potential for coexistence. Much like the “Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come” in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, which enables Scrooge to pre-experience a future, thereby positioning him at a new starting point, Anthropocene dramaturgy invites audiences to confront catastrophe in advance and thereby recognizing the present crisis as a turning point and a moment of recognition. Ultimately, Anthropocene dramaturgy calls for an ecological imagination that redefines peripeteia and anagnorisis, breaking free from the classical tragic trajectory rushing toward irreversible downfall.
KW - Anthropocene dramaturgy; catastrophe; Dimanche; The Fisherman’s Nucleus;Far Away
DO -
UR -
ER -
Sung Hee Choi. (2025). The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End. Journal of Modern English Drama, 38(1), 83-113.
Sung Hee Choi. 2025, "The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End", Journal of Modern English Drama, vol.38, no.1 pp.83-113.
Sung Hee Choi "The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End" Journal of Modern English Drama 38.1 pp.83-113 (2025) : 83.
Sung Hee Choi. The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End. 2025; 38(1), 83-113.
Sung Hee Choi. "The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End" Journal of Modern English Drama 38, no.1 (2025) : 83-113.
Sung Hee Choi. The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End. Journal of Modern English Drama, 38(1), 83-113.
Sung Hee Choi. The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End. Journal of Modern English Drama. 2025; 38(1) 83-113.
Sung Hee Choi. The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End. 2025; 38(1), 83-113.
Sung Hee Choi. "The Catastrophe of Theatre, the Theatre of Catastrophe: Rehearsing the End" Journal of Modern English Drama 38, no.1 (2025) : 83-113.
