Topics
THEA_UT 801.003 Tuesdays 2:00-4:45
Professor Carol Martin
cm7@nyu.edu
Dramatic literature in different periods is populated with female protagonists who murder. Common assumptions assume that women kill differently than men. Not only who, how, and why they kill, but the circumstances, motives, and explanations for their murders are different. Or are they? Female criminality has long been constructed on socially configured ideas about gender. Sociology, psychology, and feminism have all formulated explanations. Does theatre contribute to our understanding of women who kill their husbands, lovers, children, and themselves? Looking at plays in different periods, we will examine the portrayal of women who kill including the historical moment of the authorship of the play, the historical setting of the play, the circumstances in which the protagonists find themselves, and the reasoning that informs their choices. Plays considered will include: Medea, Antigone, Clytemnestra, The Bacchae, Macbeth, Sonezaki Shinju, Trifles, Machinal, Kokoro, Tea, My Sister in This House, Funnyhouse of a Negro, ‘Night Mother, and For Colored Girls Who Considered When the Rainbow is Enough.