Research Catalog
Coming of age in the Black liberation generation : the construction of youth in African American drama, 1950--1980
- Title
- Coming of age in the Black liberation generation : the construction of youth in African American drama, 1950--1980 / by Melinda Diane Wilson.
- Author
- Wilson, Melinda Diane.
- Publication
- 2005.
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Details
- Found In
- Dissertation Abstracts International 66-06A.
- Description
- x, 358 leaves : ill.
- Summary
- This dissertation is the first study to critically consider dramatic representations of African American youth by examining the transitional years between childhood and adulthood as explored in dramas from the civil rights movement and Black Power era. This study uses five plays and their respective initial productions as case studies to identify the interrelationship of African American theatre and drama, Black liberation movement history, and identity formation theory. Between 1950 and 1980, Black playwrights and theatre companies placed an unprecedented number of youth characters center stage just as civil rights activists positioned Black teenagers at the forefront of liberation campaigns. Black theatre purposely engaged the historical moment to pay particular attention to the social development of Black youth.
- The teenage characters in Take a Giant Step (1953) by Louis Peterson, The Toilet (1964) by LeRoi Jones, Black Girl (1969) by J. E. Franklin, Black Cycle (1970) by Martie Charles, and Zooman and the Sign (1980) by Charles Fuller represent the "Black liberation generation"---the generation of Black youth who came of age during post-World War II struggles for racial justice. These plays demonstrate how changes in American race relations impacted the life chances and choices of Black youth characters. This study evaluates the decisions the characters make utilizing facets of post-positivist realist theories of identity, set forth by cultural theorists Satya P. Mohanty and Paula M. L. Moya, that privilege the mediation of social and personal experiences as vital to identity formation. "Coming of Age in the Black Liberation Generation: The Construction of Youth in African American Drama, 1950--1980" additionally considers the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and it adds the social category of age to African American theatre discussions. Studying the Black experience through the analytical lens of youth offers critical insights to social discourses that defined the civil rights/Black Power historical moment.
- Subject
- Note
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 2029.
- Adviser: Sandra L. Richards.
- Thesis (note)
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2005.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p.
- Reproduction (note)
- Photocopy.
- Call Number
- Sc D 10-967
- OCLC
- 659025228
- Author
- Wilson, Melinda Diane.
- Title
- Coming of age in the Black liberation generation : the construction of youth in African American drama, 1950--1980 / by Melinda Diane Wilson.
- Imprint
- 2005.
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (p.
- Thesis
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2005.
- Reproduction
- Photocopy. Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI, 2005. x,358 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
- Local Subject
- Black author.
- Found In:
- Dissertation Abstracts International 66-06A.
- Research Call Number
- Sc D 10-967