Johanna Hartmann (MLU Halle-Wittenberg)
Abstract:
The impact of the digital era on democracies is a growing concern, with phenomena such as social media, fake news, or deepfakes. Jennifer Haley’s “tech plays” explore these concerns by depicting fictional worlds where corporate structures have replaced democratic ones, and digital innovations disrupt social relations. In this talk, I focus on two of Haley’s plays: Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom (N3RD) and The Nether. The Nether is set in a future where, due to an ecologial catastrophe, most public life has shifted into a digital realm. N3RD portrays an American suburban community divided by a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) popular among teenagers. I argue that the main dystopian theme in both plays is how deregulated corporate control of digital spaces affects social and political life. Through their themes and aesthetics, Haley’s plays suggest that digital realms are not separate from physical reality but extensions of it. The possibility of disembodiment in virtual spaces is critiqued as a myth that has enabled corporate domination and a lack of democratic regulation of digital realms. Thus, Haley’s plays N3RD and The Nether employ theater as a political force.
Bio:
Johanna Hartmann is Assistant Professor of American Literature at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. In her research, she focuses on American drama and theater since the 19th century, questions of (inter-)mediality (e.g., painting, photography, film), and contemporary literature. She is the author of Literary Visuality in Siri Hustvedt Works: Phenomenological Perspectives (Königshausen und Neumann 2015). In her habilitation project she focused on modernist American short plays and theater photography. She is the editor of Censorship and Exile (together with Hubert Zapf, V&R 2015), Zones of Ambiguity in Siri Hustvedt’s Works: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (together with Christine Marks and Hubert Zapf, De Gruyter 2016), The Tragic in Contemporary American Drama and Theater (together with Julia Rössler, guest issue of JADT 31.2 2019), Theater & Community: Poetics, Politics, Performances (together with Ilka Saal, JCDE 12.1, 2024), and The Body in/of Don DeLillo’s Plays (forthcoming in TSLL, 2025).