Gender Studies, Ed. Reghina Dascal, Timisoara, University of The West, pp. 173-186.
Abstract: The paper aims to explore some exemplary pieces of dramatic literature from antiquity a... more Abstract: The paper aims to explore some exemplary pieces of dramatic literature from antiquity and the
Renaissance and especially from modern and postmodern works such as The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee
Williams, ‘Night Mother by Marsha Norman and A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White by Adrienne
Kennedy through the lens of body, disability and gender studies. While the paper mainly focuses on these three
plays, it is not restricted to them. The pieces illustrate how the stage representation of physically or mentally
challenged characters has changed and the process through which disabled performance has transferred into
performative acts.
Keywords: performance, performative acts, disability, race, feminist theatre, social roles, subversion
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Papers by Gabriella Tóth
Renaissance and especially from modern and postmodern works such as The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee
Williams, ‘Night Mother by Marsha Norman and A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White by Adrienne
Kennedy through the lens of body, disability and gender studies. While the paper mainly focuses on these three
plays, it is not restricted to them. The pieces illustrate how the stage representation of physically or mentally
challenged characters has changed and the process through which disabled performance has transferred into
performative acts.
Keywords: performance, performative acts, disability, race, feminist theatre, social roles, subversion
Tennessee Williams az expresszionista dráma amerikai képviselőjeként megújította az európai realizmusban is gyökerező amerikai színházi reprezentációt. Az Üvegfigurák című önéletrajzi drámája pedig Adrienne Kennedy életművére is hatással volt. A két szerző közti kapcsolat azonban nem csupán hatástörténeti, hiszen mindketten ugyanazt a modernitás utáni traumatikus kérdést, a szubjektum emlékmunkájának, a memóriatechnológiákra épülő modern társadalomnak a válságát tematizálják. Ám míg Williams színpadi reprezentációja nem haladja meg a modernitás programját, azaz nem mond le a történet elbeszélhetőségébe vetett hitről, addig Kennedy életműve épp a múlt elbeszélhetetlenségét példázza.
Talks by Gabriella Tóth
Az indiai írónő Sumiti Namjoshi verseiben megjelenő Sycorax alakja nem a hiányt vagy az elnémítást reprezentálja. Az algériai boszorkány új életre kel Namjoshi költészetében. Az írónő pedig elkíséri őt az élete végén, mint ahogy egy haldoklót a végső óráiban. A művet a feminista és posztkoloniális olvasatokból kiindulva vizsgálom, azt állítva, hogy a „blue eyed hag” (kék szemű boszorkány) a műben megjelenő első gyarmatosító karakter.
Thirty-three years old Clara is represented within a society that forces her into a double bind affecting her entire life. She is expected to fulfill the role of an angelic woman in domestic realm, as well as in her public domain. She is alienated from herself and her environment; she fails to achieve a cohesive identity. At the same time her attempt to maintain a harmonic relationship is also aborted.
Clara, is a playwright, writing her own drama. Kennedy’s play presents a multilayer of theatricality by presenting Clara’s life (and drama) by two medias that of filmic and theatrical. Each scene of Kennedy’s play starts with a film set, in which the leading roles are played by primary actors, who look like e.g. Bette Davis and Marlon Brando. People from Clara’s life and she herself appear only as supporting characters.
The movies: Now, Voyager (1942), Viva Zapata (1952), and A Place in the Sun (1951) appear in the play. By the fact that white actors play the lives of Clara and her family, Kennedy critics Hollywood’s American Dream fantasy and its exclusion of African American actors.
In my paper I set out to focus upon the relationship between the process of subjectification and performance. After a brief introduction of theories on subject formations, by e.g. Michel Foucault, Althusser, Lacan and Kristeva, I turn to the issue of how subject formation can be understood as an act of performance. I shall conclude that by applying dramatizing the social performance i.e. subjectification, the play can be read as a meta-drama.
Renaissance and especially from modern and postmodern works such as The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee
Williams, ‘Night Mother by Marsha Norman and A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White by Adrienne
Kennedy through the lens of body, disability and gender studies. While the paper mainly focuses on these three
plays, it is not restricted to them. The pieces illustrate how the stage representation of physically or mentally
challenged characters has changed and the process through which disabled performance has transferred into
performative acts.
Keywords: performance, performative acts, disability, race, feminist theatre, social roles, subversion
Tennessee Williams az expresszionista dráma amerikai képviselőjeként megújította az európai realizmusban is gyökerező amerikai színházi reprezentációt. Az Üvegfigurák című önéletrajzi drámája pedig Adrienne Kennedy életművére is hatással volt. A két szerző közti kapcsolat azonban nem csupán hatástörténeti, hiszen mindketten ugyanazt a modernitás utáni traumatikus kérdést, a szubjektum emlékmunkájának, a memóriatechnológiákra épülő modern társadalomnak a válságát tematizálják. Ám míg Williams színpadi reprezentációja nem haladja meg a modernitás programját, azaz nem mond le a történet elbeszélhetőségébe vetett hitről, addig Kennedy életműve épp a múlt elbeszélhetetlenségét példázza.
Az indiai írónő Sumiti Namjoshi verseiben megjelenő Sycorax alakja nem a hiányt vagy az elnémítást reprezentálja. Az algériai boszorkány új életre kel Namjoshi költészetében. Az írónő pedig elkíséri őt az élete végén, mint ahogy egy haldoklót a végső óráiban. A művet a feminista és posztkoloniális olvasatokból kiindulva vizsgálom, azt állítva, hogy a „blue eyed hag” (kék szemű boszorkány) a műben megjelenő első gyarmatosító karakter.
Thirty-three years old Clara is represented within a society that forces her into a double bind affecting her entire life. She is expected to fulfill the role of an angelic woman in domestic realm, as well as in her public domain. She is alienated from herself and her environment; she fails to achieve a cohesive identity. At the same time her attempt to maintain a harmonic relationship is also aborted.
Clara, is a playwright, writing her own drama. Kennedy’s play presents a multilayer of theatricality by presenting Clara’s life (and drama) by two medias that of filmic and theatrical. Each scene of Kennedy’s play starts with a film set, in which the leading roles are played by primary actors, who look like e.g. Bette Davis and Marlon Brando. People from Clara’s life and she herself appear only as supporting characters.
The movies: Now, Voyager (1942), Viva Zapata (1952), and A Place in the Sun (1951) appear in the play. By the fact that white actors play the lives of Clara and her family, Kennedy critics Hollywood’s American Dream fantasy and its exclusion of African American actors.
In my paper I set out to focus upon the relationship between the process of subjectification and performance. After a brief introduction of theories on subject formations, by e.g. Michel Foucault, Althusser, Lacan and Kristeva, I turn to the issue of how subject formation can be understood as an act of performance. I shall conclude that by applying dramatizing the social performance i.e. subjectification, the play can be read as a meta-drama.