You are here

FAU Collections » FAU Research Repository » FAU Theses and Dissertations

Struck by Aesthetics: Recuperating Folk Drama

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
2008
Summary:
As current scholarship has begun to revisit African American theater, there has been an important rediscovery of certain women playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance. Coinciding with this rediscovery has been a tendency, however, to retain the often confusing and oppressive label that has haunted their plays and kept them from serious scholarly attention. Evoking categorizations like "folk drama" and "propaganda plays" oversimplifies the complexities of the terms themselves as well as what the individual women were doing in their writing. The primary focus of this study is to evaluate and recuperate the functions of the term "folk drama" as it operates within the realm of Harlem Renaissance drama, especially that of African American female playwrights. Reassessing "folk drama" reveals that the form is more intricate, historically and theatrically, than the label has heretofore suggested.
Title: Struck by Aesthetics: Recuperating Folk Drama.
456 views
338 downloads
Name(s): Estlund, Amber L.
Hagood, Taylor, Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2008
Date Issued: 2008
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 70 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: As current scholarship has begun to revisit African American theater, there has been an important rediscovery of certain women playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance. Coinciding with this rediscovery has been a tendency, however, to retain the often confusing and oppressive label that has haunted their plays and kept them from serious scholarly attention. Evoking categorizations like "folk drama" and "propaganda plays" oversimplifies the complexities of the terms themselves as well as what the individual women were doing in their writing. The primary focus of this study is to evaluate and recuperate the functions of the term "folk drama" as it operates within the realm of Harlem Renaissance drama, especially that of African American female playwrights. Reassessing "folk drama" reveals that the form is more intricate, historically and theatrically, than the label has heretofore suggested.
Identifier: FA00000913 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Subject(s): Dramatists, American--20th century--Criticism and interpretation.
African American women--Drama.
American drama--African American authors.
Harlem Renaissance--Study and teaching.
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000913
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.