İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü

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    Citation Count: COUSSENS, C. (2009). Updating the Restoration Libertine in Tanika Gupta’s Contemporary Adaptation of William Wycherley’s The Country Wife. Çankaya Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, Journal of Arts and Sciences, Sayı: 12, pp.61-74
    Updating the restoration Libertine in Tanika Gupta’s contemporary adaptation of William Wycherley’s the country wife
    (Çankaya Üniversitesi, 2009-12) Coussens, Catherine; Çankaya Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü
    This paper analyses Tanika Gupta’s contemporary version of William Wycherley’s Restoration comedy, The Country Wife, particularly in terms of its treatment of the libertine character central to the genre described as ‘sex’ or ‘marriage’ comedy, popular during the 1660s and 1670s (Rosenthal 7-8). By resituating the play in contemporary multicultural London, Gupta enables a critique of contemporary gender and marital mores amongst young, ethnically-hybrid communities to emerge, problematising patriarchal, misogynist or aggressive versions of masculine identity, and asserting the right of individual men and women to choose their own marriage partners. However, she also gives place to the libertine ethos as it was valorised in early modern sex comedies. Critical debate concerning the social and moral implications of the libertine have remained active since the seventeenth century, with the libertine character generally interpreted as either a refreshing freedom-seeker or an anxious misogynist. While Wycherley’s play celebrates but finally limits and condemns the efforts of the libertine to disrupt patriarchal social structures, returning the rebellious upperclass ladies to patriarchal authority, and condemning Horner to future (teputedly impotent) oblivion, Gupta’s female libertines, Dolly and Daisy, remain fun-loving outsiders ready to embark on new adventures, while Hardeep/Horner succeeds in assisting the “country wife” to escape an unhappy marriage. Gupta’s version of the play draws parallels between Restoration social debate – particularly concerning morality, marriage, patriarchy and class – and the ethnically charged debates concerning cultural identity, marriage and gender rights which dominate twenty-first century urban Britain.