Economic Violence and the Financial Subjecthood in Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine

The present study examines Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine through the critical lens of economic violence and financial subjecthood. It argues that the protagonist Undine's downfall is not simply a personal or moral failure, but rather a dramaturgical exposition of the larger neoliberal mechanisms that define, exploit, and discipline marginalized financial subjects. The play dramatizes how financial capital, debt, bankruptcy, and entrepreneurial performance intersect with race, gender, and class to construct a precarious economic identity. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks from Maurizio Lazzarato’s concept of the “indebted man,” David Graeber’s anthropology of debt, and Black feminist critiques of capitalist patriarchy, this study analyzes Fabulation as a satire of the postmodern success myth. Through close textual reading, the paper reveals how Nottage exposes economic precarity as a systemic condition rather than a character flaw and suggests that Undine’s journey constitutes a rupture in capitalist morality. The paper concludes by arguing that Fabulation disrupts the conventional redemption arc by revealing the moral violence embedded in financial structures, offering an alternative dramaturgy of survival and redefinition.