Crush Humanity One More Time: Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman in Žižekian Terms

Abstract

Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman dramatizes the interrogation and torture of a horror fiction writer, Katurian, whose stories have been re-enacted in ‘real’ life without his knowledge. The audience gradually finds out that the murders are the crimes of Michal, Katurian's mentally retarded brother, who had been physically tortured by his parents in childhood, until Katurian murdered them. Upon Michal's confession, Katurian has to kill his brother to save him from the suffering and torture to come. Subsequently, it becomes clear that the two interrogators also suffer from the violent childhoods they re-enact with the violence they inflict on their suspects. It appears that all kinds of violence in the play are somehow justified, and treated in such a complex way that it becomes hard to draw boundaries between victims and perpetrators. The depiction of violence can, however, also be examined in dimensions that trigger and shape each other: the violence of the totalitarian state directed against the individual and the artist; domestic violence; the fictional violence found in Katurian's stories. Read through Slavoy Žižek's theory of violence, which also highlights the interconnected nature of its several kinds, The Pillowman can be observed to create a panoramic view of its subject. Mahinur Akşehir-Uygur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Manisa Celal Bayar University in Manisa, Turkey. Her areas of interest are satirical literature, contemporary fiction, and women's literature.