Southern women playwrights : new essays in literary history and criticism / edited by Robert L. McDonald and Linda Rohrer Paige.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

McDonald, Robert L., 1964-

Paige, Linda Rohrer, 1948-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American drama--Southern States--History and criticism.

American drama.

Women and literature--Southern States--History--20th century.

Women and literature.

Southern States.

History.

American drama--Women authors--History and criticism.

American drama--Women authors.

American drama--20th century--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

xvi, 257 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, [2002]

Summary:

This timely collection addresses the neglected state of scholarship on southern women dramatists by bringing together the latest criticism on some of the most important playwrights of the 20th century. -- Coeditors Robert McDonald and Linda Rohrer Paige attribute the neglect of southern women playwrights in scholarly criticism to "deep historical prejudices" against drama itself and against women artists in general, especially in the South. Their call for critical awareness is answered by the 15 essays they include in Southern Women Playwrights , considerations of the creative work of universally acclaimed playwrights such as Beth Henley, Marsha Norman, and Lillian Hellman (the so-called "Trinity") in addition to that of less-studied playwrights, including Zora Neale Hurston, Carson McCullers, Alice Childress, Naomi Wallace, Amparo Garcia, Paula Vogel, and Regina Porter. This collection springs from a series of associated questions regarding the literary and theatrical heritage of the southern woman playwright, the unique ways in which southern women have approached the conventional modes of comedy and tragedy, and the ways in which the South, its types and stereotypes, its peculiarities, its traditions-both literary and cultural-figure in these women's plays. Especially relevant to these questions are essays on Lillian Hellman, who resisted the label "southern writer," and Carson McCullers, who never attempted to ignore her southernness. This book begins by recovering little-known or unknown episodes in the history of southern drama and by examining the ways plays assumed importance in the lives of southern women in the early 20th century. It concludes with a look at one of the most vibrant, diverse theatre scenes outside New York today-Atlanta.

Contents:

The current state of scholarship on southern women playwrights / Robert L. McDonald

"Let the people sing!" : Zora Neale Hurston and the dream of a Negro theater / John Lowe

These four : Hellman's roots are showing / Theresa R. Mooney

Carson McCullers, Lillian Smith, and the politics of Broadway / Judith Giblin James

The delayed entrance of Lily Mae Jenkins : queer identity, gender ambiguity, and southern ambivalence in Carson McCullers's The member of the wedding / Betty E. Mckinnie and Carlos L. Dews

"Controversy only means disagreement" : Alice Childress' Activist drama / Donna Lisker

Role-ing on the river : Actors Theatre of Louisville and the southern woman playwright / Elizabeth S. Bell

Precursor and protgégé : Lillian Hellman and Marsha Norman / Sally Burke

"Un-ruling" the woman : comedy and the plays of Beth Henley and Rebecca Gilman / Janet L. Gupton

Pseudonymy and identity politics : exploring "Jane Martin" / J. Ellen Gainor

Dialectic and the drama of Naomi Wallace / Claudia Barnett

Amparo Garcia and the eyes of Tejas : Texas community through Mexicana eyes / Carolyn Roark

Reconfiguring history : migration, memory, and (re)membering in Suzan-Lori Parks's plays / Elizabeth Brown-Guillory

The memory palace in Paula Vogel's plays / Alan Shepard and Mary Lamb

Postmodern monologues in Regina Porter's tripping through the Car house / Mary Resing

Southern women playwrights and the Atlanta hub : home is the place where you go / Linda Rohrer Paige.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0817310797

0817310800

OCLC:

47650688