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published_or_final_version / Literary Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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This research expresses female character portrayal in various drama works written by males. Chapter one is a general introduction that gives the key to this study, the motivation that leads to the selection of this topic; a literary review on the portrayal of female characters in literary works written by males; the scope of study, the basic composition of the ensuing chapters and the definitions of terms that are of paramount importance for this research. Various literary theories are used in Chapter two for the analysis of the research texts. These literary theories include womanism, gender and feminism which expose the social effects caused by the negative perception of females in social life and the negative portrayal of female characters in male dramatic writings. Other literary theories include onomastics as a literary theory, which exposes the relationship between the name giver of a person and the power the name gives to its bearer, as well as psychoanalysis as a theory which proved to be unavoidable, since this study analyses the personal behaviour of the individual characters within their literary environment. Chapter three depicts the general victimization of female characters in male drama works and exposes the various effects of the attitudes of male writers towards female characters in terms of gender role. Chapter four shows a general stereotypical portrayal of female characters in male written drama texts. This chapter shows the impact of stereotyping on female characters from drama works that puts them in a vulnerable position, showing that it is risky to become a victim of ill-treatment in their communities and the literary world. Chapter five deals with the psychological literary review of female characters, showing them as being suicidal and murderers who easily take their own lives and those of other people. Chapter six is a general conclusion of the works which includes observer remarks from other literary researchers of the literature.

The dissertation undertakes an analysis of the dramatic literature engendered by the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, and illustrates how the dramas of that period reflect the stresses and anxieties that assailed contemporary American society. It investigates the formative influences on the drama, the various styles in which it emerged, and the recurring themes and motifs. The thesis proceeds from the premise that the events of the 1960s fractured American society in a manner unknown since the Civil War. It demonstrates that the social, political, and intellectual divisiveness that characterized the society was interpreted in the theatre by dramatic metaphors of fragmentation of the individual and collective psyche, and that this fragmentation was reflected in characters who experienced a collective and individual sense of loss of cultural identity, cohesion and continuity. Included in the examination of the drama is a description of how the social upheaval of the period influenced playwrights to undertake a reassessment of American values and ethics, and to interpret in dramatic form the nature of the trauma of Vietnam for American society. The study includes a discussion of how individual and collective reality is based on cultural conditioning, and how the challenging of cultural myth in an extra-cultural milieu. / Arts, Faculty of / Theatre and Film, Department of / Graduate

The great literary movements affected Spanish drama less than that of any other country, though romanticism drew the public and stage closer. Realism and naturalism were slow in developing due to the "manifest incompatibility existing between the very spirit of the French realists and the Spanish national dramatic ideals."2 Spanish national drama deals in elemental passions, is poetic in situations, and magnificently conventional in tone; while its literary form is more important than its dramatic structure.2 French literature contains fine and subtle psychology, witty and ingenious, but is sometimes a little unsubstantial. Not universal theme but complex and involved feelings are characteristic. Spain has been slow to appreciate the modern French realistic play; indeed she has never adopted it in its original form. Attempts to imitate Ibsen3 and the foreign symbolism of Maeterlinck have been unsuccessful. The modern movement in the theatre starts at the end of the nineteenth century. Of all the writers the man most responsible for introducing modern drama, as we understand it in Europe, was Jacinto Benavente. No consideration of the modern theatre would be complete without a discussion of this interesting and brilliant dramatist. Wherever reforms have been accomplished, wherever barriers have been broken down, wherever new paths have been formed, he has been the leader.1 He is generally considered the greatest living dramatist in Spain, and worthy to rank with the best in any country. Of all the realistic dramatist of our time none is more realistic than Benavente. New ideals of literature and art, the method of the modern dramatist, more refined, more serious in aim than of old -- these are some of his contributions to modern drama. He has reacted on the drama and compelled it to change its traditional conventions for modern stage technique. Benavente is to be the master builder of modern Spanish drama; at the same time he mirrors the society of his time, its virtues and vices.

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