VICTIM AND VICTIMIZER IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PLAYS ABOUT IRAQ: A MARXIST READING

Abstract

Abstract The production of war is one of the most influential way in which the elite can increase its economic power. The war of Iraq is the most striking event in twenty one century. It leads to many human disasters and causes losses on the allies' side. This war is carried out by United States and its allies forces against Iraq in 2003 under many justifications, the possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction , the relation between Saddam government and Al-Qaida and freeing Iraqis from the tyrannical regime. Drama as a literary genre focuses on this war as its main themes on theatre stage. So, this thesis investigates British, Canadian and Irish playwrights’ depiction of the war on Iraq and their dramatization of the deception of American and British government of their people and public opinion. My main hypothesis is that these selected dramatic texts emphasized the power of the dominant discourses of both the American and British politicians related to the War on Terror. Concerning the concept of false consciousness, the study presents how the political elite is able to deceive their people about the legitimacy of the invasion on Iraq. The study's theoretical approach is Marxist perspective explaining how the possession of economic power leads to the domination of social and political issues. The study depends on Frankfurt school thoughts in its critical analysis so, economic power, political hegemony, media and ideology are the key elements that formed the way to achieve the interests of elite. Frankfurt School describes the false consciousness as the concept which adopts any personal situation for people when they are seen to act against their own real interests. The first objective of the study is to examine the economic power that helps the elite to create the moral panic. This moral panic leads the war’s veterans to fall victims to false consciousness to be recruited and join the IX army. The present study explores the effects of the economic power of governments like U.S. and U.K governments which lead them to deceive people and public opinion about the necessity of war on Iraq. The second objective is to explore the motivation that leads those soldiers to become victimizers when they come to Iraq. Therefore, the current study argues that American and British political elite adopted the moral panic as an influential tactic to deceive their people to support war on Iraq. It focuses on the influence of the concept of the (Other) which is built in the Westerner's mind. It shows how the media and political figures use the stereotypical image of Arab and Muslim to manipulate and frame their people. The selected dramatic texts portray the veterans as both victims and victimizers in the plays of Gregory Burke’s Black Watch (2006), Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End (2007) and Colin Teevan’s How Many Miles to Basra (2006). These texts are selected because they show how the soldiers fall victims of the deceptions of their government when they are manipulated to be recruited in the army during Iraqi war through the creation of threat and panic. Consequently, the study concludes that the political elite exploit the false consciousness of the public. According to certain political agenda, the elite manipulated their people using their deceptive tools like media and the misleading of political rhetoric in order to gain the support for the decision of invasion on Iraq. Moreover, it shows that the relationship between the soldiers and the political leaders is one between victim and victimizer built on political agenda for economic interests. Additionally, the study concludes that these veterans become victims of the deceptive means used by the elite. Once these veterans come to Iraq, they turn to be victimizers killing innocent Iraqi people only to save the agenda of their governments.