الفهرس 
The Black Arts Movement and Black Feminism: Concepts and Meanings:CHAPTER ONEOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 218 |  |  |
| | | from | 218 | | |
Abstract
This thesis focuses on selected dramatic works of two leading African American women playwrights: Adrienne Kennedy and Sonia Sanchez. It aims at drawing a comparison between the selected plays of both playwrights through the lens of black feminism.
Feminism is defined as a movement that aims at achieving equality among the sexes, upon the basis of sex, by eradicating or eliminating the multiple forms of oppression affecting them. It aims at advocating and upholding women’s rights, liberties, and interests, and seeks to end women’s subordination and marginalization. E. Porter adds: ”I adopt a general definition of feminism as a perspective that seeks to eliminate the subordination, oppression, inequalities and injustices women suffer because of their sex” (qtd. in Beasley 27).
Feminism aims at freeing all women, not just a specified category, of all the boundaries of gender–based oppressions. It is considered a movement by women on behalf of women, as women are aware of the burden of male–domination or the danger of patriarchal oppression upon their lives. According to Feminism, males and females are equal regardless of such racial or sexual differences among them. Thus feminism focuses on eradicating or eliminating gender inequality to promote and enhance women’s rights and interests in their society. Moreover, feminism does not solely concern women and alienates or excludes men; because certain men are interested in supporting and enhancing women’s rights and liberties without being feminists at all. They, in fact, are concerned with elevating and highlighting women’s prospects and aspirations for change across the social, political, cultural, and economic areas of life.
Therefore, women gathered in such political organizations, in America and the US, that call for the equality and the liberation of people of color in general or African American women in particular. Bell Hooks further maintains: ”Feminism is the struggle to end sexist oppression. Its aim is to not to benefit solely any specific group of women, any particular race or class of women. It does not privilege women over men. It has the power to transform in a meaningful way all our lives” (”Feminism: A Movement” 54). Ellehleh ii
Sex refers to the biological differences among men and women that lead to men’s superiority, supremacy, and domination over women, and women’s inferiority and marginalization as the other. In other words, the biological differences can be used by those (i.e.) by men to whom freedom for women can be considered a threat or a menace for their dominance, superiority, and male power or leadership. In other words, the biological distinction of women as females is the cause of their victimization, inferiority, and marginalization. It is the women’s body or their instinctive nature of bearing children that led to their oppression by men. Gender refers to the cultural and social meanings attributed to such sexual differences. (i.e.) Gender refers to the cultural and social roles attributed to men and women based on such biological or physical differences among them. Crowley and Himmelweit assert: ”Gender refers to the differences between ’women’ and ’men’ which are socially constructed, whereas sex refers to the biological distinction between females and males” (6).
The inequality of power relations between men and women is maintained through sexuality (i.e.) sex. The major differences among men and women are not in the external characteristics of men and women, but the difference is due to the fact that men are more powerful and women are less powerful (i.e.) men dominate and women only must submit to men’s desires and needs without hesitation. McKinnon asserts that ”gender is all about power and the differences between women and men are derived from that, [power relations] rather than the other way round” (qtd. in Crowley and Himmelweit 37). It is the social construction of power between men and women which leads to men’s superiority and women’s inferiority.
Black feminism is a political movement that calls for the equality, emancipation, and liberation of people of color in general or African American women in particular by rejecting, resisting, challenging, and eliminating the multiple forms of oppression and discrimination affecting them including racist, sexist, classist, and sexual oppression. According to black feminism, men and women are equal regardless of any racist and sexist boundaries, such as skin color or race, and gender, which determine who will be the superior or the inferior, who will rule and who will submit. Therefore, the major core of black feminism is that it concentrates on race and gender and how far they are Ellehleh iii
closely related to each other as they intersect or interwine to affect the lives of black people.
This thesis concentrates on examining and analyzing selected dramatic works of two leading African American women playwrights most importantly; Sonia Sanchez, and Adrienne Kennedy, who employ race and gender as a tool for expressing the torments, hardships, and the sufferings of black or mulatta women in a society that totally deprives them of their equalities and liberties, a society that demeans blackness or black skin color and elevates whiteness or white race. Their plays also express the hardships, torments, and tragedies of their black protagonists in their quest for identity and self–worth in a white–prejudiced or male–dominated society.
Kennedy and Sanchez are two leading African American women playwrights who reflect in their plays how racism and sexism, that they themselves personally experienced in their white–biased or male–biased societies, led to their protagonists’ victimization, dehumanization, death, and even metamorphosis. Adrienne Kennedy and Sonia Sanchez employ race and gender, the key terms of the approach of black feminism, to uncover their characters’ tragedy, and their racial, sexist, and sexual oppression and dehumanization.
Kennedy and Sanchez are two major figures in the development of the black theatre in America. Being African American women playwrights; their dramatic works are autobiographical (i.e.) they reflect the society of their time: the political, cultural, social, economic circumstances of their society. Their works concentrate on issues of race, class, gender, racism, sexism, power relations, identity, kinship, miscegenation, and women’s roles in a society dominated by men, and other different issues.
Therefore, it can be said that the objective of the thesis is to illustrate how race and gender intersect to affect the lives of Kennedy’s mulatta heroines and Sanchez’s black protagonists by shedding light on the plays of Sanchez who is regarded as an influential figure of the Black Arts Movement (BAM)1 and the plays of Adrienne Kennedy who is
1 The Black Arts Movement is the cultural arm of the Black Power Movement as it speaks to the needs and aspirations of the black community. It is considered a cultural and an artistic revolution in art and politics through which black people created new ideas, values, music, art, culture, and ways of looking at the world. It instigates black people to take pride in themselves and their black culture and heritage raising the slogan ”black is beautiful”. Ellehleh iv considered as an influential figure of the avant–gardeP1F 2 P theatre. Kennedy made her ”avant–garde theatre debut” with her surrealistic, nightmarish, or dream–like one act plays between the world of the fantasized, surrealistic and the real world (Wallenfeldt et al. 62). The thesis aims at drawing a comparison between the plays of these two black women playwrights as follows: Sister Son/ji (1969), Funnyhouse of a Negro (1962) and The Owl Answers (1963) and The Bronx Is Next (1968).
2 The American avant–garde is influenced by the European avant–garde through the incorporation of elements of symbolism, realism, surrealism, and expressionism in the plays of American playwrights such as Eugene O’Neil, Susan Glaspell, Zora Gale, and others. Other American playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, William Saroyan, and others represented the avant–garde theatre through which they employed inner landscapes, dream sequences, flashbacks, poetic language, realism, symbolic settings, surrealistic or nightmarish landscapes, and archetypal characters. Adrienne Kennedy employed these previous techniques in her plays, Funnyhouse of a Negro and The Owl Answers.
3 The Civil Rights Movement is a political movement of the 1960s and 1970s which aims at achieving liberation and equality for all black people. One of the major aims of the Civil Rights Movement is the elimination of segregation which aims at separating Blacks and Whites in all areas of life. Other incidents led to the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement are explained in detail in chapter one of the thesis.
On the other hand, Kennedy’s plays, Funnyhouse of a Negro (1962), The Owl Answers (1963), A Rat’s Mass, A lesson in Dead Language (1961–1969), were written at the height of Civil Rights eraP2F3P, which is marked by a series of assassinations–the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , the murders, beatings, church bombings, mob attacks, race riots, lynching, and bloody protests, and valiant sit-ins(Kolin, ”American History” 64).
The thesis aims at showing how far Sanchez’s or Kennedy’s Plays under study adhere to the principles of the BAM? How far their plays are autobiographical (i.e.) a self–reflection of the society of their time? To what extent do they adopt aspects of black feminism to convey their characters’ obsession with such concepts such as race, gender, identity and sexuality? How far they are deeply influenced by such racist and patriarchal oppression in their society which is reflected upon their protagonists? This study aims to show that Sanchez’s plays also belong to the kind of the drama of protest or the drama of accusation or the drama of the militant genre. Finally the thesis aims to show that both playwrights reflect images of blacks, particularly black or mulatta women.
This thesis is divided into three chapters in addition to an introduction, a conclusion, and a list of bibliography. The introduction stresses the importance of the Ellehleh v
topic under study while the conclusion sums up the results of the thesis. Chapter one provides a comprehensive, and an overwhelming study of feminism as a movement, the types of feminism, the waves of feminism in the US, and the various definitions of feminism by different critics or scholars. It further concentrates on black feminism as a movement. This chapter further provides a detailed analysis of selected dramatic works of two leading African American women playwrights: Sanchez and Kennedy, with regard to race and gender, the major premises of the theory black feminism
It provides an analysis of selected plays of these two black women playwrights. It also provides the various definitions of race and gender and how far they intersect to affect the lives of black people; especially black women. It also provides the various definitions of sexism, racism, and patriarchy, and how far these terms are related to Kennedy’s and Sanchez’s plays. It also gives extensive definitions of the various stereotypical images attached to black women since the era of slavery and how far these images are latent within Kennedy’s and Sanchez’s plays. Chapter one further deals with giving a background about the works of Sanchez and Kennedy by illustrating that Sanchez belongs to the BAM and that Kennedy belongs to the theatre of the avant–garde, though her plays were written at the height of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and exposes various themes of such a movement.
Therefore, the thesis also illustrates the definition of the BAM, its evolution and its relation to the Black Power Movement (BPM)P3F4P and how far they are closely related together and share the same goals or targets. Then this chapter gives a summarized study/synopsis about Kennedy’s selected dramatic works with relation to the theatre of the avant–garde whom she is considered a major and a prominent figure within. It also gives a synopsis about the CRM and how far Kennedy’s plays are influenced by the Civil Rights era, though being related to the theatre of the avant–garde, because her works are written during the Civil Rights era and the major incidents of such a
4 The Black Power Movement is the political wing of the Black Arts Movement as it laid the foundation of the Black Arts Movement through its connection to political events. (i.e.) Art is a reflection of the political circumstances of the society, because the Black Power Movement tries to relate art to politics. BPM is based on the concept of nationhood. Black people, in the context of black power, strive to find a world of their own, ”a world of Blacks” as a way maintaining their national liberation and autonomy away from the racial and the sexist constraints imposed upon them by Whites. Ellehleh vi movement. Finally, the thesis shows Kennedy’s relationship to the BAM by giving the supporting and opposing views.
Chapter two is divided into two parts, the first part deals with giving background information and biographical information/details about Sanchez and Kennedy. This chapter also illustrates Sanchez’s affiliation with the BAM, the spiritual sister of the BPM and how far her plays are autobiographical as they reflect the racism and sexism that she herself experienced as a young militant playwright of the black militant community of the 1960s and 1970s. It also sheds light on the theatre of accusation, or protest theatre, or revolutionary theatre or militant theatre and illustrates how Sanchez’s plays represent this genre of theatre.
On the other hand, the chapter gives biographical and background information about Kennedy and how far her plays are autobiographical and self–reflexive, as they reflect the harsh racism and sexism she herself experienced in the culturally diversity community of Cleveland and how far such racist experiences are reflected upon her plays. It also illustrates Kennedy’s affiliation with the theatre of the avant–garde and gives the conflicting and supporting viewpoints of Kennedy’s relationship or belonging to the BAM.
The second part of this chapter illustrates the points of similarities and differences between Sanchez’s play Sister Son/ji and Kennedy’s play Funnyhouse of a Negro. In both plays of Sanchez and Kennedy, the playwright’s sole concern is to illustrate the dilemma of race or the impact of race and gender upon the protagonists, but in different ways employed by the playwrights under study. Various points of Similarities and differences are mentioned in detail in chapter 2 of the thesis. This chapter also sheds light on the analysis of various significant characters that contributed to the development of the events of the plays.
Chapter three gives a comprehensive and an extensive study of the plays of Kennedy and Sanchez: The Owl Answers and The Bronx Is Next by pinpointing the aspects of similarities and differences between both plays. Chapter three is divided into two parts: The first part is concerned with giving background information of both plays; the second part is concerned with exposing the affinities and disparities between both Ellehleh vii
plays of these two black women playwrights. Both plays illustrate how their protagonists suffer racism, sexism, and identity crisis and how race and gender intersect to affect the lives of the protagonists but in different ways employed by these playwrights. So race, gender, and identity play a major role in Kennedy’s and Sanchez’s protagonists’ alienation, fragmentation, and tragic fate. In addition to what was mentioned above, other aspects of similarities and differences are mentioned in detail in chapter three between Kennedy’s play Funnyhouse of a Negro and Sanchez’s play The Bronx Is Next. This chapter finally sheds light on the analysis of various important characters that contribute to the development of the events of the play.
Finally, the conclusion sums up the results of the thesis, and answers the various questions that are raised within the introduction. It further illustrates how these two black women playwrights through their usage of the terms of race and gender manifest their perspectives, notions, and concepts concerning women’s oppression, victimization, and dehumanization. It further shows how these two black women playwrights attempted to expose their ideas and perspectives to the reader in different ways in order to draw on the intense and harsh oppressive systems of sexism and racism that greatly influenced African American women of the black community.
Review of Literature:
In fact, there are many examples of recent and MA theses and Ph.D. dissertations that tackled and analyzed nearly topics. One of the selected Ph.D. dissertations is a one written by Elizabeth Brown entitled: Six Female Black Playwrights: Images of Blacks in Plays by Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Sonia Sanchez, Barbara Molette, Martie charles, and Ntozake Shange. Other MA theses attempted similar topics in race and gender like an MA thesis entitled: White Shadows: Race and Ethnicity in the High School Literary Canon by Hilary Lochte. In addition, another MA thesis tackled similar issues entitled: Gender Issues and Social Roles in Williams and Childress by Julie Ann Sample. So, a lot of MA theses and Ph.D. dissertations tackled similar topics in race and gender but in different ways, perspectives, viewpoints and interpretations through using their innovative techniques and styles/modes of writing.