Anguish and Animals in Cosmopolitan Zones

Abstract

This essay explores the way in which codes of gender and sexuality arestaged in the work of three female playwrights, offering a means tonuance the humanist, liberal connotations of the term “cosmopolitan.”Contemporary uses of the term focus on the emotional register of diasporicand globalized relationships. This new use of cosmopolitan indicatesa subjective acceptance of diversity or difference across nations andcultures rather than the cultural universalism associated with its formeruses. These revised notions of cosmopolitanism serve as optimistic alternativesto the dark side of globalized/transnational processes that are perceivedas political and economic, without affect or emotion. Whenpushed, the term suggests a familiar positing of the universalist categoryof the human, which, seemingly, was left behind with liberal humanism. This essay argues that this new interest in subjective relations is genderblind and ignorant of the role sexual practices play in organizing relationships. Rather than positing a universalist subject, this essay offersthree theatrical examples by women playwrights that create a “cosmopolitanimaginary” that takes into account the codes of gender and sexuality:Sarah Kane’s Blasted, Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play,and Jiehae Park’s Hannah and the Dread Gazebo. Key Words: cosmopolitanism, affect, gender and sexuality