Searching for Postmodernism in Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life

Abstract

Martin Crimp is regarded as one of the significant playwright in Britain in the last decade of twenty first century. He has written on the changing structures of family, the issue of woman, consumerism and similar topics. Although he wrote most of his initial plays in absurd tradition, he then began to write about the social issues of his time with the beginnings of nineteen nineties. It is certain that this brought a certain change in his topics and style. However, he wrote his masterpieces following his decision on writing postmodern issues. Attempts on Her Life is one of his late plays debuted in 1997 and regarded as his masterpiece. The play subjects a woman who meets the audience in different roles such as mother, lover, killer and child throughout the play. Crimp tries to evoke the audience to feel the temporariness and some other features of postmodernism in this play. For this reason, this study will investigate the traces of postmodernism in Crimp's Attempts on Her Life.