Man in the Shadow of Technology: A Literary Exploration of Virtual Identity in Selected Contemporary Plays

This thesis investigates the impact of the development of technology on human beings that has been presented on contemporary theatre in three plays: Caryl Churchill’s A Number (2002), Jennifer Haley’s The Nether (2013), and Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime (2014). In the above plays, the playwrights examine the influence of technology on the process of shaping characters’ identity. As such, the thesis aims to examine the extent to which technology intervenes to cause the emergence of “virtual identity.” In doing so, the study relies on the theory of the posthumanism and Lyotard’s concepts of postmodernism to explore notions of fragmented identity, the dissolution of grand narratives, and the inherent instability of the subject. The study comprises three chapters. Chapter One examines Churchill's A Number (2002), exploring human cloning through Salter and his cloned sons, analyzing the trauma of being a copy and how one actor playing all sons enhances fractured identity, challenging the notion of singular human identity. Chapter Two focuses on Haley's The Nether (2013), investigating a virtual world that blurs identity, morality, and reality through disembodiment and virtual avatars, questioning whether identity can be separated from the body. Chapter Three examines Harrison's Marjorie Prime (2014), centered on an elderly woman using an AI companion to combat dementia, investigating memory and identity as curated narratives outsourced to a non-human entity, and the emotional consequences of a machine learning to be human. Together, the plays show identity as fragmented, reconstructed, and shaped through technological systems, viewed through posthuman and Lyotardian lenses.