Expert: Richard Freeman - 1/24/2008

Question
Hi I was wondering if you could give me a little bit of direction on my dissertation. I am looking at the idea of femininity and masculinity being ideologies and appear in such a way that they appear natural and inevitable. I want to focus my dissertation on looking at texts that support and/or question this view. I plan to look at the texts: masterpieces by sarah daniels, Cleansed by sarah Kane, Ghosts by Ibsen and Shopping and Fucking - Mark Ravenhill. Any advice you could give me on where to start with this or what you would include in this dissertation would be much appreciated.
many thanks
sarah

Answer
Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your question.

I might need a little bit of clarification on your inquiry before I can fully help. Firstly, to whom are masculinity and femininity ideologies (author, characters, audience...)? Are you suggesting that they are presented as some sort of deterministic grand-narrative (like religion), in which all 'male' and 'female' behaviour is prescribed?

You've picked an interesting range of texts; Kane, Ravenhill and Daniels will offer aspects of the same perspective, whereas Ibsen will be pre-dating the postmodernist deconstruction of gender by some years.

The best thing is to look closely at the relationships between the characters, and what each is or isn't supposed to 'represent'. Read other texts by these authors (particularly Ravenhill's 'Mother Clap's Molly House' and Kane's 'Crave' - Caryl Churchill's 'Cloud 9' is also interesting in relation to gender) and develop a sense of context.

All of these text challenge gender normatives - is this why you have chosen them? Crucially, these are plays and were written to be performed - think about how directors would interpret the messages on gender - how would you 'play' the roles and what would you want from your audience?

Some useful books to support you include:

In-Yer-Face Theatre - Aleks Sierz
  
Staging Masculinities: History, Gender, Performance -  Michael Mangan

Race, Sex and Gender in Contemporary Women's Theatre: The Construction of Woman - Mary F. Brewer

I hope that helps!

Richard