Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930
THE THEME OF RACIAL DISCERNMENT IN NTOZAKE SHANGE’S
CHOREODRAMAS
T.Saranya, Ph.D. Scholar in English, E. R .K. Arts & Science College, Erumiyampatti, Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu, India. E mail id: [email protected] Dr. B. Visalakshi, Assistant Professor in English, E. R .K. Arts & Science College, Erumiyampatti, Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu, India.
ABSTRACT
In African American society the concept of race plays a major role. Many writers are
flourished to fight against the racial discriminations. The writers such as Lorraine Hansberry,
Ntozake Shange and Alice Childress come out with their voices for the black female society.
Through their characters they pictures the struggles face by the black female under the
suppressed rule of white society. These writers are notable and print their foot in color line. The
present paper focused on the subject of racial prejudice in Ntozake Shange Choreodramas.
Ntozake Shange, a poet, a playwright and novelist is renowned for her blistering words and
sweltering writings. She presents choreodramas or choreopoems on the stage. The choreopoem
or so called choreodrama is a theatrical structure of phrase that coalesce song, poetry, prose,
dance, and music. Shange’s choreodramas are dealt with various ideas. She is a writer especially
for black females. Most of her choreodramas express the sufferings of the black females who
suffered not only by the white people but also by the black men.
KEY WORDS: Racial Conflicts, Choreodrama, oppression, sufferings
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Last night I dreamed of the dead slaves -all the murdered black and bloody men
silently gathered at the foot -a my bed. Oh, that awful silence. I wish the dead
could scream and fight back. What they do to us... .
- Julia Augustine, Wedding Band
Racial discernment is a major issue in African American community. Remarkable writers
contribute their writings to the voiceless people. They rise up their tone against the oppressed
female community. Elizabeth Brown- Gillory asserts that the above mentioned writers’
landmark their writings in the tradition of African- American dramas, “crucial links in the
development of play writing in American” (1). These writings have chosen a new path and
moves towards a new direction. “With the steadily growing interest in the works of black women
playwrights, however, the established canon is quickly broadening to include plays by Alice
Childress, Martie Charles, and Ntozake Shange as poignant dramas of self- celebration.”
(Brown- Gillory 27)
The theatrical ground of Shange initiates the voluptuous knowledge expressing the
manifold characteristics of African Americans:
The fact that we are an interdisciplinary culture/ that we understand more than
verbal communication/ lay a weight on Afro-American writers that few others are
lucky enough to have been born into. We can use with some skill virtually all our
physical senses/ as writers committed to bringing the world as we remember it/
imagine it and know it to be the stage we must use everything we’ve got (8)
The plays are portrayed to expose the realism of black community. Shange is one among them in
sketching the struggle of feminine, the battle for emancipation and equality. Her themes mainly
focus upon the ethnical conflicts and the attitude of “Black Arts Movement” in 1960s. Her
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conspicuous works are for colored girls…, (1976), spell#7..., (1979), a photograph: lovers in
motion (1979) and boogie woogie landscapes (1979). Shange is outstanding for her
choreodramas and choreopoems. Both express the internal conflicts of black women in the white
community.
In her play for colored girls…, the main character the lady in brown shares her
experience of self realization through song and music. The initial poem “dark phrases of
womanhood” speaks of suppression and color discrimination. Toni Cade Bambara asserts her
views of Shange’s contribution as, “celebrates the capacity to master pain and betrayals with wit,
sister- sharing, reckless daring, and flight and forgetfulness if necessary. She celebrates most of
all women’s loyalties to women.” (36, 38) Similarly Gabrielle Griffin portrays the characteristics
of Shange’s characters as, “… for colored girls is not predominantly concerned with
victimization but with finding the young Black woman’s voice and self. Shange writes as a
woman for woman trying to find a woman’s voice – and ‘writes the body’ in the manner in
which French Feminists talk of it” (34). The writer’s work depicts the double strength of African
woman. She should be valued as a black and as well as a woman. She consoles these
characteristics of women by narrating that these women are not only living with their loneliness
and agonies.
The writer visions the self esteem of black women and their unity at their distress. The
statement proceeds that the freedom of black woman is not attained by individual struggle, their
unity results in the attainment of power and striving. To lead an equallent life the black woman
should analyze their self consciousness and should identify their true distinctiveness. At the end
of the work the writer pictures the character to realize their victimization in the society and
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expresses their love and unity through their songs. The theme of the play narrates the
complications of women in the over shadowed society,
& this is for colored girls who have
considered
suicide/ but movin to the ends of their
own
rainbows. (FCG 105)
Mitchell assesses Shange’s black women’s alienation as, “The woman depicted by Shange
become physically and spiritually whose, thus free, through the psychic/ psychological healing
power that resides in the ancient, fundamentally religious act called “the laying on of hands”
(203).
The next drama spell#7…, discusses about the misinterpretation of black females life in
the American society. She brings back the racial discriminations and the ancient tradition of
black womanhood. In this drama she presented nine characters, through these characters she
discusses the various ways of racially oppressed society. She further discusses the black people’s
inability of finding carrier. The white people made the black for some assigned jobs. She pictures
the American society’s views of racism. They condemn the scarcity of realistic and their roles in
the theatre as mammy, buffoon and prostitute. Sandra Richards asserts Shange’s concepts as,
“Shange’s text (spell#7) functions like an odu, or book, on the construction of black identities
within an exorcised space, freed of the dominant culture’s stereotypes”. (70)
Shange presented her views through poetry, music and dance in New York Daily News
Don Nelson quotes Shanges’s style as:
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Ntozake Shange’s spell#7…, is black magic. It is a celebration of blackness, the
joy and pride along with the horror of it. It is a shout, a cry, a bitter laugh, a sneer.
It is an extremely fine theater piece. The word that best describes Shange’s works,
which are not plays in the traditional sense, is power. Drama is inherent in each of
her poetic sentences because the words hum with a vibrant urgency (December,
27, 1981: 21)
In A Photograph: Lovers in Motion black space is utilized by the most of the characters
of the play. But exceptionally two characters Sean and Michael adopted according to their
desires. The writer presents the motivation of the black woman who is raising up the confidence
of the black man in facing the society and creates a smooth relationship in their sexual attitudes.
The writer focuses upon the black women’s racial prejudices and their sexual annoyances. In this
story Shange portrays the talent of black man’s talent in photography. She additionally points out
the efforts of individual to break up the limitations in racism and sex. In a soliloquy scene the
character of the play states:
when you get to be a man/ you can go the
whorehouse
with me/ that’s what he used ta say the he
brought the whores home/ and fucked em
and beat em and fought em and: laughted
all nite long … ( PLM 94).
In the play boogie woogie…, the writer has applied stream of consciousness. Through
this technique the protagonist of the play discloses her suppressions with her night life
companion. The narration of the writer states, “totally devoted to the emotional topology of a
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young woman/ how she got to be the way she is/ how she sees where she is” (Shange 1981: 120).
The nightmares of the protagonist explain her racial struggles which she faced in the American
society. Through this character the writer reveals the struggle for freedom, race and sexual
assault which the black faces in the American society.
The collection of poems Nappy Edges of Shange depicts the sex and racial conflicts of
women as:
Every three minutes a woman is beaten
Every five minutes/ a woman is raped/
Every ten minutes a little girl is molested..
Every three minutes// Every five minutes//
Every ten minutes//
Everyday (1983: 42).
The choreodramas of Shange voices the racial struggles of female in the African
community. They boldly reveal the agonies faced under the arms of white society. The concept
of race carried out by the writer is not only the problems of the African society, it is a problems
of the world. Shange’s discussion of colour problems in America is an eye opener to all the
community.
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Works Cited
Bambara, Toni Cade. “For Colored Girls- And White Girls Too.” Ms., 5: 3 (Sept. 1976): 36, 38.
Brown- Gillory, Elizabeth. Their Place on the Stage. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Griffin, Gabriele. “Writing the Body’: Reading John Riley, Grace Nichols and Ntozake Shange.”
Wisker Gina, Ed. and introduction. Black Women’s Writing. New York: St. Martin’s,
1993. 19- 42.
Shange, Ntozake. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered When the Rainbow is Enuf. New
York: Macmillian Publishing Company, 1975. Print.
---. Three Pieces. New York: St.Martin’s Press, 1981. Print.
---. “Unrecovered losses / Black Theatre Traditions.” The Black Scholar, Vol 10, No.10 (July/
Aug 1979): 7-9. Print.
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