Post Human Theatre: Artificial Intelligence as a Dramatic Agent of Modern English and American Drama

This paper aims to discuss radical transformations that have occurred in the shape of theatrical action in the English and American literature in the light of the advent of artificial intelligence as dramatic agent that no longer fulfils its technical function, but instead becomes a potent force in controlling theatrical discourse. The post humanist approach employed in the study is to examine how such fundamental concepts as theatrical character, dramatically agent and the writing self are being re-constructed in the context of the complex relationship between humans and machines.The paper also considers the effects of this presence on reformulation of narrative and dramatic structure and the subversion of the traditional hierarchy of author, actor and audience.The research is carried out through the prism of a cultural-critical approach and textual analysis and is premised on theoretical constructs mentioned in the works of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault and recent studies of digital theatre.The research finds that post-human theatre is not the continuation of a technological advancement in the instrumentation of performance, but it is a re-negotiation of knowledge, which alters the view of the creative, identity and agency in the theatrical space. It also establishes new ways of looking at the relationship of literature with technology and proposes a critical framework by which theatrical texts in the digital age can be viewed as a product of an elaborate and multidimensional human-machines interaction.