Author: Dana A. WilliamsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
A Bibliography with Selected Annotations of Contemporary African-American Female Playwrights from Lorraine Hansberry to the Present
Author: Dana A. WilliamsContemporary African American Female Playwrights
Author: Dana A. WilliamsPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313064954
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Book Description
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959) was a major dramatic success and brought to the world's attention the potential talent of African American women playwrights. But in spite of Hansberry's landmark contribution, both the theater and the literary world have often failed to include contemporary African American female playwrights within the circle of production, publication, and criticism. In African American drama anthologies, female playwrights are seldom given the degree of attention that is accorded their male counterparts. And because of space constraints, anthologies of works by women playwrights are forced to exclude numerous female dramatists, including African Americans. Meanwhile, some scholars have argued that the works of African American female playwrights are seldom produced in the mainstream theater because these plays frequently challenge the views of white America. But as A Raisin in the Sun demonstrates, plays by African American women dramatists can have a powerful message and are worthy of attention. A comprehensive research tool, this annotated bibliography sheds light on the often neglected works of contemporary African American female playwrights. Included within its scope are those dramatists who have had at least one work published since 1959, the year of Hansberry's monumental achievement. The first section provides a listing of anthologies that include one or more plays written by an African American female dramatist. The second gives entries for reference works and for scholarly and critical studies of the dramatists and their plays. The third presents a listing of published plays by individual dramatists, along with a summary of each drama; the works of each playwright that are related to drama; and secondary sources that treat the dramatists and their plays. Entries are accompanied by concise but informative annotations, and the volume closes with a list of periodicals that frequently publish criticism of African American female playwrights, a section of brief biographical sketches of the dramatists, and extensive indexes.
African American Women Playwrights
Author: Christy GavinPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113652147X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
This Guide includes the primary and secondary works and summaries of plays of 15 prominent African American women playwrights including Lorraine Hansberry, Ntozake Shange, Adrienne Kennedy, Alice Childress, Zora Neale Hurston, Georgia Douglas Johnson. During the last 10 to 15 years, critical consideration of contemporary as well as earlier black women playwrights has blossomed. Plays by black women are increasingly anthologized and two recently published anthologies devote themselves solely to black women dramatists. In light of the growing interest in scholarship concerning African American women playwrights, researchers and librarians need a bibliographical source that brings together the profiles interviews, critical material and primary sources of black female playwrights. This guide will provide a bibliographical essay reviewing the scholarship of black women playwrights as well as for each playwright: a biography, summaries of each play detailed annotations of secondary material, and list of primary sources.
Black Women Playwrights
Author: Carol P. Marsh-LockettPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317944941
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Black Female Playwrights
Author: Kathy A. PerkinsPublisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253113660
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
"Fine reading and a superb resource." -- Ms. "Highly recommended." -- Library Journal "Perkins has chosen the plays well, and her issue-oriented introduction places the women and their works in a literary and historical context." -- Choice "As well as being centered on the black experience, the plays in Black Female Playwrights are centered on the female experience." -- Voice Literary Supplement "Perkins' anthology is valuable for a number of reasons... Perkins' book (which includes a bibliography of plays and pageants by black women before 1950 as well as a selected bibliography of critical works) is a major help in providing access to [the world of black drama]." -- Theatre Journal The need to acknowledge these works was the impetus behind this volume. Perkins has selected nineteen plays from seven writers who were among the major dramatizers of the black experience during this early period. As forerunners to the activist black theater of the 1950s and 1960s, these plays represent a critical stage in the development of black drama in the United States.
Wines in the Wilderness
Author: Eliz Brown GuilloryPublisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
For those whose familiarity with black women playwrights is limited to the works of Lorraine Hansberry and Ntozake Shange, this collection of 15 plays written between 1925 and 1985 by eight authors will be a revelation. They express a passionate longing for social justice and for a stable, nurturing relationship between black men and women. Introductions for each author provide biographical information and critical analyses. A useful bibliography of plays and secondary sources is also included. This anthology helps to fill a serious gap in the standard histories of American drama. Library Journal Wines in the Wilderness brings together thirteen plays by black women from the 1920s to the present, including works by Marita Bonner, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Eulalie Spence, May Miller, Shirley Graham, Alice Childress, Sonia Sanchez, Sybil Kein, and Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. The plays and dramatists selected are representative of and have made considerable contributions to African American theater. Although the works of these playwrights span over sixty years, they are closely linked by the theme of women struggling to define their roles in society. The heroines speak out against interracial and intraracial biases, stereotyping, lynch mobs, illiteracy, poverty, promiscuity, self-righteousness, abusive men, rape, and miscegenation. Each play is preceded by a critical introduction that includes biographical information, an assessment of the playwright's contributions to black theater, and a synopsis and critical analysis of the play. The bibliography that follows the plays provides selected lists of published plays, produced plays, and anthologies. An index completes the work. This collection represents an effort to make available plays written by black women that have not been published or are now out of print. In recovering these plays, scholars will now be able to take a close look at the contributions that black women dramatists have made not only to African American theater, but to American theater in general.
Their Place on the Stage
Author: Eliz Brown GuilloryPublisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0313259852
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This study begins with a brief discussion of the African origins of African American theater, and then moves into an analysis of the many women playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance. In the third chapter the focus narrows down to the three playwrights who constitute the core of the study: Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, and Ntozake Shange. In addition to a discussion of each of their major plays, Brown-Guillory analyzes the tonal and structural forms of their plays and the image of blacks each woman creates. The three playwrights are linked in this study by their portrayal of the black struggle in an inhumane society and by their common focus on the "spirit of survival" of African Americans. ISBN 0-313-25985-2: $37.95.
Their Place on the Stage
Author: Eliz Brown GuilloryPublisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275935663
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This is the first book-length study of black American women playwrights. It will be useful to scholars in the fields of black and women's literature and an excellent source of background reading in graduate and undergraduate courses on American women playwrights. The author's training as both a scholar and a playwright is evident in this book. Choice This important contribution to African American and women's studies analyzes the dramatic works of America's black women playwrights. The plays of such writers as Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, and Ntozake Shange are examined in light of the tradition from which they emerged. Brown-Guillory begins by tracing the development of African American theater with its roots in African theatrics, then moves on to discuss women playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance such as Angelina Weld Grimke, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Georgia Douglas Johnson, May Miller, Mary Burrill, Myrtle Smith Livingston, Ruth Gaines-Shelton, Eulalie Spence, and Marita Bonner. Though rarely anthologized and infrequently made the subject of critical interpretation, asserts the author, the plays of these early twentieth-century black women offer much to the American theater in the way of content, tonal and structural form, characterization, as well as dialogue, and were instrumental in paving a way for black playwrights from the 1950s to the present.
Choice
Author: Women Playwrights of Diversity
Author: Jane PetersonPublisher: Greenwood
ISBN: 0313291799
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The cultural and ethnic diversity of contemporary American society is represented in plays by women. These women playwrights of diverse backgrounds, however, are too infrequently seen on the stage or read in the classroom. This reference highlights the careers and work of more than 80 women playwrights whose writings portray the African American, Latina, Asian American and lesbian sensibility in the United States. Each profile includes a biographical sketch, a description of plays, a selected production history of each work, information on the availability of plays, awards won by the playwright, and a selected bibliography of critical articles and reviews. Introductory essays begin the volume, and the work concludes with a selected bibliography of major studies. The ethnic and cultural diversity of the United States is well represented by contemporary dramatists. Women playwrights have made many contributions to American drama, and their plays portray a broad range of cultural experiences. These dramatists, however, are too frequently underrepresented on the stage and in the classroom. This reference book presents the African American, Latina, Asian American, and lesbian perspective in the United States. Many of the playwrights are established; others are emerging. Playwrights were selected based on the recommendations of theatre professionals and leading scholars, along with the production record of the writer and the production potential for the plays. Included are alphabetically arranged entries for dramatists such as Maria Irene Fornes, the Five Lesbian Brothers, Adrienne Kennedy, Velina Hasu Houston, Holly Hughes, Lisa Loomer, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Wakako Yamauchi. Each entry includes a brief biographical narrative, descriptions of individual plays, a selected production history of each drama, information on the availability of both published and unpublished works, a listing of awards won by the playwright, and a selected bibliography of critical articles and reviews. The volume begins with introductory essays which overview the contributions of African American, Asian American, Latina, and lesbian women playwrights, providing a valuable context for the profiles that follow. The book concludes with a selected bibliography of major critical and scholarly studies.