"This Fundamental Challenge to Identity": Reproduction and Representation in the Drama of Adrienne Kennedy

Although Kennedy's plays focus on the mind, their subtexts are riddled with references to the body and the reproductive process. Kennedy's plays may be seen as expressions of failed pregnancies--of pregnancies that end in miscarriage and madness. Due to ingrained racial and sexual oppressi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theatre journal (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 1996-05, Vol.48 (2), p.141-155
Main Author: Barnett, Claudia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African American literature
African Americans
American drama
American literature
American theater
Animal reproduction
Belgian literature
British & Irish literature
Caves
Children
Cruelty
English literature
French literature
Kennedy, Adrienne
Kristeva, Julia (1941- )
Mimesis
Mothers
Motion pictures
Movies
Playwriting
Pregnancy
Rats
Rodents
Self concept
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Theater
Women
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Summary:Although Kennedy's plays focus on the mind, their subtexts are riddled with references to the body and the reproductive process. Kennedy's plays may be seen as expressions of failed pregnancies--of pregnancies that end in miscarriage and madness. Due to ingrained racial and sexual oppression, Kennedy's subjects remain fragmented, existing as bitterly opposed selves, observing their own existence but unable to act, incapacitated by circumstances of birth. While Kennedy's plays sustain thematic metaphors of miscarriage, however, they also work as symbols of birth, fulfilling Elin Diamond's definition of "mimesis-mimicry" and thereby satisfying a theatrical metaphor for the womb.
ISSN:0192-2882
1086-332X
1086-332X
DOI:10.1353/tj.1996.0047