Native American drama : a critical perspective / Christy Stanlake.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stanlake, Christy, 1972-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American drama.

Indian theater--United States--History--20th century.

Indian theater.

Indians in literature.

Indians of North America--Intellectual life.

Indians of North America.

History.

American drama--Indian authors.

United States.

Physical Description:

xi, 242 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Summary:

The recent rise in publications and professional productions of Native American plays moves Native theatre from specific, cultural communities into larger, more generalized audiences, who quickly discover that Native plays are uniquely different from mainstream drama. This is because Native theatre is its own field of drama, one that enacts Native intellectual traditions existing independently from Western drama yet capable of extending mainstream theatrical theories. This study contends that Native dramaturgy possesses a network of distinctive discourses pertaining to Native American philosophies and relating to theatre's performative medium. Following an introduction that traces Native American theatre history from the 1900s to today, Native American Drama moves into a critical examination of Native dramaturgy. The study privileges voices of Native literary theorists, including Gerald Vizenor, Robert Allen Warrior, and LeAnne Howe, to introduce four Native discourses - platiality, storying, tribalography, and survivance - that intersect performative elements of space, speech, action, and movement. To demonstrate how these discourses address Native dramaturgy without reducing the multi-dimensionality of Native theatre, Stanlake applies them to Native plays, ranging from Lynn Riggs' The Cherokee Night to Tomson Highway's Ernestine Shuswap.

Contents:

A history of Native American drama

Developing a critical perspective for Native American drama

Native American platial history

Platiality in Native American drama

Native storytelling

Storying and tribalography in Native American drama

Representing uncontainable identities

Acts of survivance in Native American drama

Interconnected theories and the future of Native American drama.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780521519809

0521519802

OCLC:

316736768

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description