COLLABORATION OF FEMINIST AND POSTCOLONIAL DISCOURSES IN THE PLAYS OF APHRA BEHN AND CARYL CHURCHILL
DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/X6PD-8D88
Defense Date
2009
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Catherine Ingrassia
Second Advisor
Laura Browder
Third Advisor
Marcel Cornis-Pope
Fourth Advisor
Noreen Barnes
Abstract
Subjugated groups studied by discourses of feminism and postcolonialism are commonly oppressed by white, male, imperial power systems. As different marginalized groups are exploited by the same dominant ideology the disparate discourses should collaborate in an attempt to fight the powers of oppression en masse. This thesis will explore not only how feminism and postcolonialism should collaborate, but that they have already been doing so for hundreds of years. In the seventeenth century the playwright Aphra Behn was already exploring the discourses as inseparable, and three-hundred-years later, playwright Caryl Churchill continues to do the same. By studying conventions of drama throughout various theatre movements, such as Restoration and Epic theatre, I will show how class, gender, and race have always been cultural issues as long as Britain has had imperial status.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
April 2009