Research Catalog
Understanding Marsha Norman
- Title
- Understanding Marsha Norman / Lisa Tyler.
- Author
- Tyler, Lisa, 1964-
- Publication
- Columbia, South Carolina : The University of South Carolina Press, [2019]
Items in the Library & Off-site
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 20-165 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- 142 pages; 24 cm.
- Summary
- "Perhaps prompted by an interviewer's question (Beattie 292), American playwright Marsha Norman has described 'trapped girls' as an important theme of her work, one that stems from her own childhood experiences growing up in a fundamentalist Christian family: 'I saw myself as a trapped girl as a kid . . . trapped in this evangelical household full of violence' (Myers). Her mother, a fundamentalist Methodist, had a violent temper and strong religious beliefs. She forbade her children to watch television because of its perceived sinfulness, so Marsha spent much of her childhood reading. 'I had a very isolated childhood, read a lot, played a lot and wasn't allowed to frown,' Norman has said (Brustein 184). She often felt trapped in a hostile environment and later recalled longing to be kidnapped so that she could escape her family. Norman identifies the theme of the trapped girl not only in the character of Arlie in her first play, Getting Out, and Jessie in 'night, Mother, but also in Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, Celie Johnson in The Color Purple, and Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County"--
- Series Statement
- Understanding contemporary American literature
- Uniform Title
- Understanding contemporary American literature.
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- Understanding Marsha Norman -- "All the help she can stand" : the transformative power of women's friendship in Getting out -- Early plays : Third and Oak, Circus valentine, and Traveler in the dark -- "Firsthand knowledge of how suicides feel" : 'night, Mother -- Vanishing children : The fortune teller -- Rewriting the western tradition : The holdup, Sarah and Abraham, and Loving Daniel Boone -- "I heard someone crying" : The secret garden -- "Sex just doesn't work" : Trudy Blue, 140, and Last dance -- Writing for a world of spectators : television work -- Later musicals : The red shoes, The color purple, The trumpet of the swan, The Master Butcher's Singing Club, and The bridges of Madison County.
- Call Number
- JFE 20-165
- ISBN
- 9781643360027
- 1643360027
- LCCN
- 2019018474
- OCLC
- 1076499699
- Author
- Tyler, Lisa, 1964- author.
- Title
- Understanding Marsha Norman / Lisa Tyler.
- Publisher
- Columbia, South Carolina : The University of South Carolina Press, [2019]
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Series
- Understanding contemporary American literatureUnderstanding contemporary American literature.
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Other Form:
- Online version: Tyler, Lisa, 1964- author. Understanding Marsha Norman Columbia, South Carolina : The University of South Carolina Press, [2019] 9781643360034 (DLC) 2019021954
- Research Call Number
- JFE 20-165