Quest/ion of Identities in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Post-revolutionary Drama

Inspired both by the Black Arts Movement and the postmodern revolt against it, Parks has concentrated on crafting provocative plays that represent and emphasize the concerns and quest/ion of identities for African Americans. In the present essay, I argue that Parks is interested in questioning the f...

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Main Author: Mehdi Ghasemi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: European Association for American Studies 2016-08-01
Series:European Journal of American Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11613
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author Mehdi Ghasemi
author_facet Mehdi Ghasemi
author_sort Mehdi Ghasemi
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description Inspired both by the Black Arts Movement and the postmodern revolt against it, Parks has concentrated on crafting provocative plays that represent and emphasize the concerns and quest/ion of identities for African Americans. In the present essay, I argue that Parks is interested in questioning the former constructed racial boundaries of blackness and revolutionary ideologies of the Black Arts Movement without turning a blind eye to the concerns of African American community. I show that Parks attempts to escape the traditions of the Black Arts Movement, which depended on conventions of narrative realism and straightforward language to transmit its revolutionary messages. My goal is to show how Parks’s plays make use of postmodern aesthetics and paradigms to transform the conventional features of playwriting, create indeterminacies toward dominant systems of oppression and raise the quest/ion of identities for African Americans in a post-revolutionary manner.
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spelling doaj-art-b0836c45b89544868db3239124ace03f2025-01-06T09:09:13ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362016-08-0111210.4000/ejas.11613Quest/ion of Identities in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Post-revolutionary DramaMehdi GhasemiInspired both by the Black Arts Movement and the postmodern revolt against it, Parks has concentrated on crafting provocative plays that represent and emphasize the concerns and quest/ion of identities for African Americans. In the present essay, I argue that Parks is interested in questioning the former constructed racial boundaries of blackness and revolutionary ideologies of the Black Arts Movement without turning a blind eye to the concerns of African American community. I show that Parks attempts to escape the traditions of the Black Arts Movement, which depended on conventions of narrative realism and straightforward language to transmit its revolutionary messages. My goal is to show how Parks’s plays make use of postmodern aesthetics and paradigms to transform the conventional features of playwriting, create indeterminacies toward dominant systems of oppression and raise the quest/ion of identities for African Americans in a post-revolutionary manner.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11613identitystereotypeSuzan-Lori Parkspost-revolutionary theaterthe Black Arts Movementpostmodern drama
spellingShingle Mehdi Ghasemi
Quest/ion of Identities in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Post-revolutionary Drama
European Journal of American Studies
identity
stereotype
Suzan-Lori Parks
post-revolutionary theater
the Black Arts Movement
postmodern drama
title Quest/ion of Identities in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Post-revolutionary Drama
title_full Quest/ion of Identities in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Post-revolutionary Drama
title_fullStr Quest/ion of Identities in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Post-revolutionary Drama
title_full_unstemmed Quest/ion of Identities in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Post-revolutionary Drama
title_short Quest/ion of Identities in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Post-revolutionary Drama
title_sort quest ion of identities in suzan lori parks s post revolutionary drama
topic identity
stereotype
Suzan-Lori Parks
post-revolutionary theater
the Black Arts Movement
postmodern drama
url https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11613
work_keys_str_mv AT mehdighasemi questionofidentitiesinsuzanloriparksspostrevolutionarydrama