1st Edition

Oil and Modern World Dramas From Petro-Mania to Petro-Melancholia

By Alireza Fakhrkonandeh Copyright 2023
412 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

412 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

412 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

The first to focus on the (re-)presentations of oil in dramatic literature, theatre, and performance, Oil and Modern World Dramas is a pioneering volume in the emerging field of Oil Literatures and Cultures, and the more established field of World Literatures. Through close analysis, Fakhrkonandeh demonstrates how these dramatic works depict oil, both in its perceived nature and character, as an... Read more

Acknowledgments

Prelude

Introduction

Modern And Contemporary Oil Dramas and Cultures

Chapter One

Oil, the Crisis of Representation, and the Dramatic Form

Chapter Two

Conjonctural Cycles of Capitalist Oil Extraction in Western Peripheries: Leo Lania’s Konjunktur 1 (1928)

Chapter Three

"on a wave of oil England swam towards victory […] our weapon of choice was oil": Oil Monopoly, Petro-Dramaturgical Aesthetics and Capitalocene in Leo Lania’s Konjunktur 2

Chapter Four

"Oil Is an Idea": From Production to Anti-Production in Leo Lania’s Oil Field (1934)

Chapter Five

"It’s not easy to make oil and love run in harness together": "Petroleum Odes," "Oil Odour," and "Odious Coolies" in Lion Feuchtwanger’s Oil Islands

Works Cited

Index

Biography

Alireza Fakhrkonandeh is Assistant Professor in Modern and Contemporary Drama and Literary Theory at the University of Southampton, UK. He has recently finished two books, titled Body and Event in Howard Barker’s Theatre of Catastrophe (2019) and Evental Ontology, Immanent Ethics and Affective Aesthetics in Howard Barker’s Drama (under review). He completed his PhD at Warwick University (2015; funded by WU). Fakhrkonandeh holds degrees in English Literature and Literary Theory (PhD), Continental Philosophy (MA), and Medical Humanities (PhD). His works have featured in various journals and books, including Symploke, Textual Practice, Comparative Drama, English Studies, JCDE, ANQ, The Edinburgh History of Reading (2020), and The Somaesthetics of City Life (2019). He is also a professional academic translator. He is the sole authorized translator of Howard Barker’s works into Persian.

“On the whole, Fakhrkonandeh’s work is a ground-breaking contribution to the fields of energy and environmental humanities. It is deeply researched, theoretically rigorous, and compellingly argued. It is recommended for all scholars of drama and theatre studies, energy and environmental humanities, and related literatures.”

--Yiğit Sümbül, Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University, Turkey