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2 - In the Native State and Indian Ink

from PART 1 - BACKGROUND

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

Katherine E. Kelly
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
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Summary

Stoppard has long demonstrated a certain interest in dramatizing political and cultural differences. Plays such as Professional Foul, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, and Hapgood play off the Cold War politics of Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia and the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s), as do shorter plays such as The Dog It Was That Died and Cahoot’s Macbeth. Significantly, the delineation of cultural differences in these plays is mainly subordinated to discussion of the repression and censorship of the artist or writer as individual. These plays emphasize the perspectives of English characters in these exotic settings or mark non-English characters as decidedly “foreign,” sometimes picturing, as in Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, repressive situations in ways that ultimately foster a sense of English nationalism. Night and Day (1978) might serve as a good example. Set in a volatile political situation in Kambawe, a “fictitious African country, formerly a British colony” (p. ix), it focuses mainly on the personal and professional dilemmas of veteran journalist Dick Wagner, photographer George Guthrie, idealistic young reporter Jacob Milne, mine owner Geoffrey Carson and his bored wife Ruth, these taking precedence over any psychological development of the African characters. The second act appearance of President Mageeba promises an interesting characterization; in an interview with Wagner, the British-educated Mageeba articulately delivers his perspectives on his country’s postcolonial politics and the role of the press. However, this conversation soon comes to an end. Mageeba reveals the danger barely concealed by this well-spoken exterior as he suddenly strikes Wagner; the interview ends entirely when Guthrie enters bringing news of Milne’s violent death in military crossfire. Mageeba’s presence ultimately serves only to establish the degree of uncertainty suffered by the English and Australian journalists and expatriates.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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