Abstract
This chapter draws on eco-critical discourse to frame the discussion on Stephen Carleton’s award-winning play, The Turquoise Elephant (2016). Eco-critical analysis in contemporary dramatic discourse and of theatrical representation has grown from the literary legacy of Romanticism, specifically in fields of landscape aesthetics and writing about nature and the natural world. Initially providing an overview of ecocriticism and its corresponding relationship with Romantic legacies, the chapter acknowledges that the increasing visibility of ecocriticism in drama and theatre studies creates a successful framework for Climate Gothic analysis as it engages with the interrelationship between theatre environmentalism and climate change. Carleton’s play draws on and inverts legacies of eco-critical Romantic traditions through its Gothic paradoxes of light and shade and good and evil. It is within this paradox of inversion wherein the Climate Gothic reading laments the loss of the nation’s connection to non-human nature. The Turquoise Elephant question the values that we attach to the environmental crisis in this country.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Carleton, S. (2016). The turquoise elephant. Playlab Press.
Dirlick, A. (2003). Global modernity: Modernity in an age of global capitalism. European Journal of Social Theory, 6(3), 275–292.
Glotfelty, C. (2006). Introduction: Literary studies in an age of environmental crisis. In C. Glotfelty & H. Fromm (Eds.), The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology (pp. 161–175). University of Georgia Press.
Hassall, L. (2017). Contemporary theatrical landscapes: The legacy of Romanticism in two examples of contemporary Australian gothic drama. In S. Green & P. Hetherington (Eds.), TEXT Special Issue Website Series: Romanticism and contemporary writing – legacies and resistances, 41, pp. 1–14, October. textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue41/Hassall.pdf
Hassall, L. (2020). Contemporary performance and climate change: Redefining the Australian landscape narrative. Australasian Drama Studies (ADS), 76, 270–295.
Heise, U. K. (2008). Sense of place and sense of planet: The environmental imagination of the global. Oxford University Press.
Lane, I. (2020). Climate change cities index: Melbourne predicted to be among worst affected by 2050. The New Daily On-line. https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/environment/2020/01/29/climate-change-cities-index-2050/
Jordan, D. (2014). Climate change narratives in Australian fiction. Lambert Academic Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.105
Maxwell, A. (2009). Postcolonial criticism and ecocriticism and climate change: A tale of Melbourne underwater in 2035. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 45, 15–26.
Neville, K., & Smythe, L. (2009). Environmental activism or national security threat? Policy options for addressing radical environmental targeting. (Centre for International Relations Working Paper No. 49, pp. 1‒21). http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.532.3204
Picart, J. C., & Greek, C. (2010). Monsters among us: Toward a gothic criminology. Teaneck Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Plumwood, V. (2008). Shadow places and the politics of dwelling. Australian Humanities Review, 44, 139–150. http://australianhumanitiesreview.org/2008/03/01/shadow-places-and-the-politics-of-dwelling/
Trexlar, A., & Johns-Purta, A. (2011). Climate change in literature and literary criticism. WIREs Climate Change, 2(2), 185–200. https://doi.org/101002/wcc.105.
Ulm, S., Williams, S., Turney, C., & Lewis, S. (2018). How sea levels could shrink Australia and spark a coastal exodus. The Conversation: ABC News on-line. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-16/rising-sea-levels-could-shrink-australia-coastal-exodus/9333400. Accessed on 28 July 2020.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hassall, L. (2021). Romantic Legacies: Ecocriticism in Australian Performance. In: Theatres of Dust. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6159-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6159-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-6158-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-6159-4
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)