Chapter 7 - Revolt

Summary

Chapter 7 considers the interrelation of hunger, appetite and armed resistance to the state. It explores how the initial causes of revolt are represented in these plays, stressing the interrelation of the hunger of the poor with the appetites of the rich. But it also emphasises the degree to which these onstage revolts are represented as processes, which move from depictions of an initial grievance to representation of the appetites which can be unleashed by the act of rebellion. Lastly, it stresses the utopian possibilities of presenting these rebel appetites onstage, arguing that discernible in the most radical of these texts is a proto-communist emphasis on the potential creation of a society in which all are equal. The depiction of hunger, appetite and revolt emerges as the subject of a pronounced interpretative instability, rooted in the legitimation of the contemporary status quo, but permeated, nevertheless, by insurrectionary possibilities.