Floating above the Stream: A Brechtian Reading of Edward Bond's Narrow Road to Deep North

Abstract

Among British established dramatists, the most notable one whose theatrical works seem most related to Brechtian traditions is Edward Bond. Bond belonged to the first-wave generation of the 1960s and 1970s, who suffered from the dreadful outcome of the two World Wars. In his plays, one can notice some recurrent themes such as social injustice, persecution of minorities and lower classes, indictment of war and its proponents, disbelief in religion and authority, resentment of politicians and their hypocritical behaviour, etc. The paper, however, is limited to focus on exploring one of Edward Bond’s most significant works; Narrow Road to Deep North and argue that it represents the playwrights’ main attempt to use and develop forms of Brechtian complex seeing.