https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.033
Eloquent Absences: The Dramaturgy of Unspeakability and Traumatic Memory in Jon Fosse’s Plays
ANISH
Ph.D. Scholar
Department of English
Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya
Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat, Haryana
Abstract: This paper reads Jon Fosse’s minimalist dramaturgy as a formal response to traumatic memory. While existing criticism often situates Fosse within a lineage extending from Samuel Beckett to Harold Pinter, this study redirects attention to the structural function of silence in his plays. It examines what Fosse’s language accomplishes when it refuses to speak: scenic voids, ritualistic repetitions, and syntactical interruptions that leave thoughts unfinished. The argument is developed through a comparative reading of Sa Ka La and Deathvariations, two plays in which silence operates not as stillness but as a form of pressure.
The theoretical framework combines Cathy Caruth’s conception of trauma as a rupture in narrative coherence, Hans-Thies Lehmann’s theory of postdramatic theatre, and Kenneth Sewell and Amy Williams’s concept of meta-constructive gaps in traumatic storytelling. Together, these perspectives illuminate how Fosse’s formal strategies shape audience engagement. In Sa Ka La, the recurring interjection “yah” functions as a structural hinge, connecting characters across domestic distances while simultaneously emphasizing the limitations of genuine communication. In Deathvariations, obsessive repetition emerges not merely as a stylistic feature but as the central logic of the play, suggesting that fate does not arrive in a linear progression but endlessly returns.
The paper argues that Fosse redistributes traumatic weight through interrupted syntax and temporal loops that carry meanings beyond spoken dialogue. His dramaturgy thus becomes less a theatre of silence than a theatre in which silence performs measurable work, reshaping perceptions of time, witnessing, and the limits of what can be articulated. Through these strategies, Fosse’s plays offer a profound exploration of traumatic memory and the conditions of unspeakability.
Keywords: Jon Fosse, Traumatic Memory, Postdramatic Theatre, Unspeakability, Silence in Drama, Meta-Constructive Gaps, Sa Ka La, Deathvariations
Read Full Manuscript PDF