PATRIARCHY REINCARNATED: POSTHUMAN FEMINISM IN ALAN AYCKBOURN’S HENCEFORWARD AND COMIC POTENTIAL.

This study attempts to analyze Alan Ayckbourn’s Henceforward (1987) and Comic Potential (1998) from the standpoint of posthuman feminism. It is argued throughout this study that androids emerge as the extension of humans and are predominantly constructed upon particular ideological foundations laden with essential patriarchal privileges, gender stereotypes, and social norms. Unsurprisingly, comedy scenes are galore in both plays, and in line with the Ayckbournian trademark dramaturgy, tragedy is always offered as a side dish to its side-splitting laughter. In Henceforward, the non-operational composer Jerome hopelessly attempts to consign a motherly-woman role upon his flawed android, Nan while Comic Potential’s actor android Jacie, thanks to her more robust AI, epitomizes female subjugation yet enjoys an incomparably distinctive denouement, evoking the modern-Pygmalion. The plays eventually allow a viable comparative analysis as they share mutual tenets about what essentially makes us humans. It is further maintained that deeply ingrained, historically formed, socially constructed patriarchal fantasies are ultimately reincarnated on the android body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]