The End of The World: Unveiling Dystopian Apocalypse in Caryl Churchill’s Far Away
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Date
2025
Authors
Özçelik, Kaya
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
RumeliYA Yayıncılık
Abstract
In today’s fast-changing world, it is clear that humanity is inclined more to the-end-of-world than ever, which can well be evidenced by the portrait of political and socio-cultural developments that directly impact the future of humankind. In this context, global trends towards autocracy or totalitarianism can well be observed through various conflicts and strategies in contemporary world politics, as is witnessed in the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Russian-Ukrainian war. In the world of fiction, these are all interpreted within the boundaries of dystopian and (post-)apocalyptic genres, each of which developed as a sub-genre of science fiction. While the deterioration of the once politically and socially peaceful world is analysed within the realm of dystopian fiction, the world plunged into apocalypse through several specific cataclysms, especially by man-made causes, are analysed within the boundaries of (post-)apocalyptic fiction in the world of literature. Thus, the intersection of dystopian and apocalyptic narratives has long served as a clear lens through which societies have examined their deepest anxieties - whether they stem from authoritarian rule, environmental collapse, or the erosion of truth and morality, which bring humankind closer to an inescapable end day by day. In contemporary literature and drama, these themes have gained an urgency to mirror a world grappling with political extremism, technological upheaval, endless wars, and so on that pave the way for nothing other than cataclysmic events, such as mind-controlling, nuclear holocaust, ecological crises out of many. Among playwrights who challenge traditional storytelling and expose systemic dysfunction, Caryl Churchill keeps her own as one of the foremost literary figures with her unique radical voice and daring who merges dystopian and (post-)apocalyptic elements to disclose starkly the contemporary portrait of the world by blurring the boundaries between realism and absurdity to leave her audiences/readers all alone to solve the knot. It is just at this point that Far Away gains more prominence in the world of literature/drama with its minimalist illustration of the knot tightened by an ongoing dystopian society as a precursor to an immanent and imminent apocalypse.
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Keywords
Dystopia , Totalitarianism , Apocalypse , violence , Caryl Churchill
Citation
Özçelik, K. (2025). The End of The World: Unveiling Dystopian Apocalypse in Caryl Churchill’s Far Away. F. Tekin (Ed.), Rumeli Philological Writings 3 içinde (74-88 ss.). Kırklareli : RumeliYa Yayıncılık. http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14992987
