O MÂRȘAVĂ UCIDERE. DISECȚIILE POSTDRAMATICE ALE LUI IRVINE WELSH ÎN UMBRA LUI SARAH KANE
MURDER MOST FOUL. IRVINE WELSH'S FLIRTATIONS WITH POSTDRAMATIC DISSECTIONS IN THE SHADOW OF SARAH KANE

Summary/Abstract: Stemming from his initial rise to fame in the frayed literary milieu of 1990s Scotland (a trajectory equal parts prodigious and unforeseen), Irivine Welsh's liminal and yet larger-than-life auctorial persona has seen a series of gradual shifts towards an ever-expansive horizon of bold experimentation with both stylistic form and transgressive ideation. Although little doubt remains that prose has consistently presented itself as the author's most organically comfortable medium of expression - further consolidating his claim to the much-envied rank of inter-generational punk emissary -, Welsh has not shied away from occasionally delving into more capricious channels of literary craft, albeit with limited success. In view of In-yer-face theatre's congruent ascension into the limelight of British postmodernism at the turn of the century, one such striking foray would see the rambunctious scotts author attempt to grapple with and dismantle the conventional tenets of drama. Owing much of his aesthetic and discursive ethos to the contemporraneous efforts of Sarah Kane, Welsh's first piece of cohesively polished dramatic writing, the explosively brief and haughtily titled You'll Have Had Your Hole, would seek to perforate the outer shell of bourgeois theatrical convention and taste, following in the larger steps of household enfants terribles the likes of Antonin Artaud or Bertolt Brecht. The present exhortation will attempt a comprehensive delineation of the underlying theoretical approach employed by Welsh in this endeavor, in conjunction with a comparative analysis of the degree to which Kane's poetic fulcrum would end up not finding an adequate match (or successor) in the fledgling playwright's opus.

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