Paradise on Fire: Dialectics of Utopia in Edward Bond’s The War Plays

ABSTRACT Edward Bond’s The War Plays align with Theodor Adorno’s characterization of utopia as the recognition of reality’s dialectically gleaned potential for change. Formal and dramaturgical contradictions within The War Plays serve to stimulate social and political possibilities. Within this context, art functions as a form of “determinate negation,” acting as a tool of resistance against ideological manipulations. As such, this study unveils how Bond’s early confidence in the capacity of art to drive positive societal change evolves into a more nuanced position that recognizes both the enduring impact of cultural norms, and their tendency to recur throughout history. Any optimistic utopianism within Bond’s The War Plays is therefore accompanied by the inescapable shadow of past conflicts.