Essays and Scripts on How Mothers are Portrayed in the Theater: A Neglected Frontier of Feminist Scholarship

Author: 
Year:
Pages:348
ISBN:0-7734-3779-7
978-0-7734-3779-1
Price:$219.95 + shipping
(Click the PayPal button to buy)
This collection examines the nexus of mothering, feminism, and theatre. The work examines the portrayals of mothers in literature and on the performance stage, and makes a contribution to studies in dramatic literature, women’s studies, feminist theory, and theatre history.

Reviews

“This collection opens the floodgates to mother power. Not only is it a collection of colliding possibilities of what “mother” means; but it is clearly a collision of disciplinary thought: feminist scholarship, theatrical performance/dramatic literature, and the emerging scholarship of motherhood. Finally, this work becomes a collision of powers: the power of performance, the power of motherhood re-appropriated, and the power of the feminist gaze.” – Prof. Kathryn Moller, Fort Lewis College

“This book is an important step in establishing a conversation about the performance of motherhood and the act of mothering as source material for artistic creation.” – Prof. Onye Ozuzu, University of Colorado, Boulder

Table of Contents

Foreword by Kathryn Moller
Acknowledgements
Introduction – Beth Osnes and Jennifer Popple
Overview of Research on Mothering and Motherhood
Part I: Pre-Industrial Revolution Work
Part II: Advent of Capitalism
History: First-Wave Feminism
Early 20th century up to 1960s
The 60s and 70s: Second Wave of Feminism
Continuing Dialogue
Description of Chapters
Conclusion
Works Cited
Hispanic Mothers on Stage: Women Playwrights Undermining Masculinist Values – Gisela Norat, Agnes Scott College
Monstrous Girls and Their Monstrous Mothers – Erica Stevens-Abbitt, University of Windsor
Italian Mammas and Suffering Madonnas: The Strategic Deployment of Maternal Stereotypes in the Theatre of Franca Rame – Sydney Cheek O’Donnell, University of Utah
Motherhood Displaced: Rachel Crothers’ The Three of Us and A Man’s WorldAnna Andes, College of Charleston
The Abject of My Affection: The Erotics of Stepmotherhood in Sarah Kane’s Phaedra’s Love and the Wooster Group’s To You, The Birdie (Phèdre) – Christine Woodworth, UNC-Greensboro
“She watches us watching her”: The Theatre of Maternity and the Performance of Maternal Failure in O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into NightLisa Hall, University of Colorado
Not So Sainted: Mothers on the Contemporary Irish Stage – Helen Lojek, Boise State University
Catholic Mothers in Contemporary American Drama – Heather Beasley, University of Colorado
Julie and Mama Rose: The Musical Theatre Mother – Merlaine A. Angwall, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
The Mother Load: A One-woman Theatrical Performance – Beth Osnes
Skins: An Ensemble Dance Theatre Performance Written by Elizabeth Ingraham and Adapted for the Stage by Kathryn Moller
All Clytemnestra on the Western Front: A Techno Feminist One-woman Performance and Reconstruction of the IIiad Performed and Written By Michelle Ellsworth Edited by Ann Ellsworth

Other Cultural Studies Books