This dissertation presents Margaret Macnamaras career as a playwright and dramaturg while exploring the cultural and political context of her works. It explores the influences of the Fabian Society on Macnamaras work and places her among such leading independent theatre artists as George Bernard Shaw, Harley Granville Barker, and Nugent Monck. The political context of her work is examined as her play, Mrs. Hodges (1920 is compared with Shaws Widowers Houses and the theatrical context of her work is established as productions of The Gates of the Morning (1908) and Our Little Fancies (1911) are analyzed. Her plays are grouped by thematic concerns but also presented in chronological order. First, two plays that feature pacifist themes, The Baby in the Ring (1918) and In Safety (1924), from the interwar period, are analyzed for their allegorical interpretation of controversial subject matter. As Macnamara highlights womens struggles in a patriarchal system in her play, Light-Gray or Dark? (1920), The Witch (1920) and Love-Fibs (1920), she espouses womens rights for independence at a time when there was pressure to revert to traditional gender roles. Discussion of her adaptations of three nineteenth-century novels reveals her desire to examine the influences that impacted her Victorian childhood. Finally, her play, Florence Nightingale (1936) is examined for the manner in which it encompasses the social, pacifist, and feminist themes of her earlier works. This dissertation attempts to resurrect Macnamaras work and place it back into circulation in order that it might provide important information and insight for scholars of theatre and womens studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-1114102-182657 |
| Date | 15 November 2002 |
| Creators | Lufkin, Patricia Ellen |
| Contributors | Gerilyn Tandberg, Jennifer Jones, Sara Lynn Baird, Sharon Weltman, Leslie Wade |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-1114102-182657/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University Libraries in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. |
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