Psychology of Belonging and Traumatised Soldiers in In-Yer-Face Theatre: Anthony Neilson’s Penetrator and Sarah Kane’s Blasted

Abstract

The psychological concept of belonging (or belongingness) is a strong motive found in human nature. When not satisfied or is lost, it causes highly problematic behaviors and relationships, leading sufferers to try to satisfy their need to belong. This article studies how belongingness finds reflections in the isolated and traumatized soldier characters of the two significant plays, namely Penetrator (1993) by Anthony Neilson and Blasted (1995) by Sarah Kane, of the 1990s British drama, known as the In-Yer-Face theatre. In order to achieve this, this article analyzes the soldier characters – Tadge from Penetrator and Soldier from Blasted – found in these plays by means of the theories and related studies on the concept of belonging such as those put forth by Roy Baumeister, Mark Leary, Abraham Maslow, Sigmund Freud, and Jacques Lacan. The study expands the analyses of the soldier characters in the plays by juxtaposing the theories of belonging and sense of belonging with related studies on several other psychological concepts, such as recognition, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and transference.