Facing History: A Comparative Study of Howard Barker and Bahram Beyzaie's Selected Plays

This article attempts to compare Bahram Beyzaie and Howard Barker, two tragedians with a critical-historical approach towards the past, formal history, and canonical texts. The plays by Beyzaie and Barker (Judith and Possibilities by Barker and Fath-Nameh-Kalat by Beyzaie) are studied based on the theories of Hegel, Theodor Adorno, and Hayden White including historicizing and the matter of truth, the process of subjectivity, the moral philosophy of rationality/irrationality, and sacrifice. Rereading and representing historical events through tragedies and via personal ethics, aesthetics, and critical approaches pave the way for the audience and readers’ understanding of the past. This offers them the power of imagination and creation and saves them from habitual repetitions as well as the imitation of Grand Narratives. This negation gives self-consciousness to the individual and leads her/him in transforming from a passive and obedient object to an active and rebellious subject in the society. Beyzaie’s and Barker’s challenging and complex views of the past, historical narrations, and patriotic/patriarchal morality, along with the literary techniques they use which provide a shocking, skeptical, and delusional atmosphere for the audience to encourage it to deny, guess, and create are the notable and radical artistic and philosophical characteristics of these playwrights.