ESTABLISHING CONVERSATIONAL DOMINANCE AS A JOINT EFFORT: CARYL CHURCHILL’S THREE MORE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS ACT 2
ABSTRACT. Caryl Churchill’s work has been the object of critical attention for quite a while now; however, certain aspects of the celebrated playwright’s dramatic language have received much less attention than they deserve. For instance, Churchill’s use of overlapping dialogue is pointed out by some critics as a ‘distinctive style which declares authorship’ (Wallis and Shepherd 1998: 46-47); yet, her use of pausing has been largely overlooked. I would suggest, however, that certain types of pausing at the micro level of inter-character dialogue can have an impact at the macro level of the play as a whole and can ultimately be related to the playwright’s large-scale concerns. In Churchill’s usage, these discursive features may contribute to the construction of ‘traditional forms’ of male-female relationships, based upon ‘prevailing power relations’ – as Kritzer (1991: 135) argues with reference to the play Three More Sleepless Nights (Churchill 1990). In the following, I shall concentrate on Churchill’s use of pausing in Three More Sleepless Nights Act 2, where overlapping is conspicuously absent. Textual examples and their discussion are prefaced with a brief explication of my approach.