Sarah Kane, 4.48 Psychosis

Aleks Sierz (Independent Scholar - Europe); Julie Waddington

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2000

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Kane's most experimental play, and the one that represents the culmination of her quest to make form and content match, was her last – 4.48 Psychosis – completed shortly before her suicide in 1999 and produced posthumously. As with Crave, the playtext of 4.48 Psychosis presents a challenge to anyone wishing to stage it. On the page, there are no characters, nor is there any indication of how many actors are required. The text is laid out following the conventions of a modernist poem, rather than those of a playtext. This is a deliberate attempt to suggest the experience of psychological collapse, and in particular what happens to a person's mind when they suffer a psychotic breakdown, when the barriers which …

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1926 words

Citation: Sierz, Aleks, Julie Waddington. "4.48 Psychosis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 June 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=15075, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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