Codifying the National Self: Spectators, Actors and the American Dramatic Text (Dramaturgies Textes, Cultures et Representations Texts, Cultures and Performances)

Theater has always been the site of visionary hopes for a reformed national future and a space for propagating ideas, both cultural and political, and such a conceptualization of the histrionic art is all the more valuable in the post-9/11 era. The essays in this volume address the concept of «Americanness» and the perceptions of the «alien» – as ethnic, class or gendered minorities – as dealt with in the work of American playwrights from Anna Cora Mowatt, through Rachel Crothers or Susan Glaspell, and on to Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Nilo Cruz or Wallace Shawn. The authors of the essays come from a multi-national university background that includes the United States, the United Arab Emirates and various countries of the European Community. In recognition of the multiple components of drama, the essays for the volume were selected in order to exemplify different aspects and theories of theater studies: the playwright, the play, the audience and the actor are all examined as part of the theatrical experience that serves to formulate American national identity.

The Editors: Barbara Ozieblo is Associate Professor of American Literature at the University of Málaga, where she has organized several conferences on American theatre. She is the International Secretary of the American Theatre and Drama Society, Treasurer of the Spanish Association for American Studies, and co-founder and President of the Susan Glaspell Society. She has published on Susan Glaspell and on other American women dramatists in Spanish and in English.
María Dolores Narbona-Carrión is Assistant Professor of American Literature and History at the University of Málaga. Her publications deal with American theater and Nineteenth-century American women writers. She has co-organized and participated in several international conferences on American theater at the University of Málaga.