The study of Ideological State Apparatuses in Howard Barker’s Claw

This study aims to analyze one of Howard Barker’s plays, Claw (2008) which was originallypublished in (1975). The play traces the life and career of an ambitious, yet depraved young manfrom the lower class. Noel is born in hard conditions of depravation after WWII, as the deformedbastard son of a munitions worker. These hard conditions and the type of characters thatsurround him (especially his mother and father) managed to influence him in creating a newcharacter for himself named Claw. Although many critics consider Barker as a significant Britishplaywright in modern drama, and although this play is considered as a turning point in Barker’scareer as a playwright, no researcher has managed to dedicate a full study concerning the playsof Barker, and also no researcher has managed to dedicate an Althusserian study concerningClaw. To fill the gap, a study concerning the aspects of ISAs is introduced to analyze how thecharacter of Claw took shape and development through time and incidents. The results of thestudy show how the capitalist process of reproduction of relations of production is operating.Each mass is given the rate of ideology that suits it, and is ejected to the society to perform itsduty. In Noel’s case, due to his deform face and extreme pragmatism, he is expelled from schooland casted to the street to perform any dirty duty that would be in the service of the bourgeoisie.

Keywords:

Howard Barker , Claw , Althusser , Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs)