미국 희곡의 페미니즘

Feminism in American Drama

A history of feminism in American Drama covers the 20th century of American Drama The history goes back to Angelina Weld Grimkes Rachel production in 1916 according to Patricia R. Schroeder. Grimkes play was aimed at the condltons of oppression and it depicted a new view of feminism in African-American drama, but it was the beginning of oppressed womens voices in American Drama. American women playwrights of the past used the stage to make people understand the value and power of their work as art and as protest against a society marked by racism sexism, poverty, greed, and war. American drama in literary cannons. it was considered as unwanted bastard child, and female authored plays were treated (is unborn children threatened with abortion by both the academic and theatre establishments (Haedicke 203), Beth Henley in 1981 seems to be the first awarded woman playwright in twenty-three years and it was the birth of the second-wave feminism Following Henley, Marsha Norman won the prize in 1983 and Wendy wassorstein in 1989. Lillian Hellmans The Little Foxes (1939) is one of the good examples of women playwrights endeavor which represents the hope of creating a new order in American Drama and American society. Nina Baym calls American society as an imperfect world (156) where womens liberation was necessary in order to gain for women themselves the best possible lives in 1960s. Besides Hellman, there have been many other women playwrights in American Drama such as Alice Gerstenberg. Megan Terry, and Alice Childress in the past. They were and have been the pioneers of developing feminism in American Drama. Beth Henley portrays an affirmative future for her characters who work toward multicultural, multiracial, and toward a cosmopolitan future in the 21st century Wendy Wasserstein creates the world of the Heidi Chronicles. Heidi adopts a baby hoping that her baby daughter would live in a new world where the new generations voice would be different and would be heard. Marsha Norman portrays people who are on the point of cutting ties from everything, from the past. the present. or the future, hoping to search for a new self. In the 21st Century. more and more minority voices will come out in American Drama. The impact of the voices of women and other voices of minorities on theatre will bring changes of American drama, and renew heritages of oppressed minorities including women playwrights, They are making America a new multicultural nation in a new era.