Gale, Maggie B. (1995) West End women : representations of woman, the female and femininity, in plays by women on the London stage 1918-1962. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to identify and reposition the work of a number of
women playwrights whose work was produced on the London Stage between
1918-1962. The existing academic assumption about these playwrights is either
that they have no significant place in a history of the drama, or that their work
was not rooted in feminist ideology. The thesis sets out to analyse their work in
the context for which it was created; a time in which both women's lives and
the British theatre, were transformed by war, cultural change and a change in
their status within the public domain. As such, the plays are examined in
relation to social, cultural and ideological developments and change, which
particularly affected both women's lives and the perception of what it meant to
be a woman. Similarly, the emergent theories of femaleness and femininity,
which grew in number during the period under examination and are outlined in
the thesis, have a relevance to a reading of the dramatic texts in question. There
are, as far as I am aware, no other detailed studies of plays by women
playwrights of the period analysed here. As such, it is hoped that this thesis
constitutes at least the beginnings of such a study. Some of the plays quoted
here, were treated in less detail and within a far less theoretical framework in a
Masters thesisWhich was submitted in 1988.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Women dramatists -- Great Britain, Feminism -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century, Females in literature, Feminist literature, English drama -- 20th century
Official Date:	February 1995
Dates:	Date Event February 1995 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Theatre Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Barker, Clive, 1931-
Extent:	vi, 285 leaves
Language:	eng

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