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Redefining political theatre: masochism and the problem of identity

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Title
Redefining political theatre: masochism and the problem of identity
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Title
Masochism and the problem of identity
Name (ID = NAME001); (type = personal)
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Mustamäki
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Piia J.
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Piia J. Mustamäki
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Elin Diamond
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David
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Advisory Committee
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David Eng
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Edwards
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Brent
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Advisory Committee
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Brent Edwards
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Reinelt
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Janelle
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Advisory Committee
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Janelle Reinelt
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outside member
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Rutgers University
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degree grantor
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Graduate School - New Brunswick
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theses
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2008
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2008-05
Language
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English
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electronic
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application/pdf
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v, 203 pages
Abstract
This dissertation proposes that the psychoanalytic concept of masochism is indispensable in interpreting race and gender politics in contemporary American theatre by women of color. The plays I examine -- Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus, Adrienne Kennedy's The Ohio State Murders and Alice Tuan's Hit -- use race and gender to expose the manner in which the democratic principles of modernity are not fulfilled, despite the appearance of equality. They do this, paradoxically, by staging the ways in which social factors might produce political conformity rather than defiance. Masochism, I argue, offers a compelling critical lens into the failures of liberal democracy as experienced by women of color. These failures surface as crises in the idealized concept of the autonomous, free-willing subject, a concept on which the democratic principles are based. Unlike much political theatre, the plays in this study do not represent efforts to achieve such an idealized subject position. Instead they depict masochistic subjects for whom such positions are unavailable, delineating the inadequacies of liberal democracy as they pertain to racialized and gendered subjects in the nineteenth and twentieth century.
I proceed from the recognition that masochism, an inherently cultural phenomenon, is an acted-out symptom of the discrepancy between modernity's ideals of sovereignty and equality and a differently experienced reality. More than merely serving as a mechanism of sexual gratification, masochism is a complex psychic and social matrix, always both adaptive and defensive. It is in fact a paradoxical act of resistance, a defense mechanism for those for whom autonomy is out of reach. Through close readings of the three plays, I provide an example of masochism's usefulness in interpreting the politics in dramas that represent women of color whose masochistic behavior perpetuates rather than defies their oppression. Formally and thematically closer to the theatre of Jean Genet than to that of the Black Arts Movement or feminist groups, these plays foreground a new way of representing race and gender-based social criticism in the theatre.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-202).
Subject (ID = SUBJ1); (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Literatures in English
Subject (ID = SUBJ2); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Theater
Subject (ID = SUBJ3); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Masochism in literature
Subject (ID = SUBJ4); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Minority women in literature
Subject (ID = SUBJ5); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Minority women--Social conditions
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Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
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http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.17360
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ETD_882
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Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3XG9RG3
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Open
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Name
Piia Mustamaki
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Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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