A postmodernist study of capitalism in mike bartlett's earthquakes in london

Abstract EN

Drawing on a postmodernist background, the researcher tackles the subtle nature of the capitalist system as depicted in Mike Bartlett's Earthquakes in London (2010).

The study points out how capitalist practices lead to socio-economic problems associated with natural catastrophes.

Such natural catastrophes caused by capitalist practices and negotiated throughout the play are carbon emissions, air pollution, rising temperature, global warming, earthquakes, high ocean levels, and floods.

The paper has reached three main findings.

First, the playwright has stressed the detrimental capitalist nature as limitless by employing the dramatic technique of extending his play both in time (spanning three periods from the 1960's to 2525) and in scope (global catastrophes, corporate corruption, and estranged family).

Second, the practices of the capitalist system have been demonstrated to escalate the socio-economic impacts of natural disasters; these practices will subsequently fail to provide any solutions to problems radically caused by them.

Third, the play's finale implies that activists, faced with the infernal powers of capitalism over ages, are before two difficult options: either conquer or be killed by it.