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88. the Theme of Racial Discernment in Ntozake Shange's Choreodramas

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88. the Theme of Racial Discernment in Ntozake Shange's Choreodramas 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 Volume XI, Issue XII, 2019 Page No: 837 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930 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 Volume XI, Issue XII, 2019 Page No: 838 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930 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 Volume XI, Issue XII, 2019 Page No: 839 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930 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: Volume XI, Issue XII, 2019 Page No: 840 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930 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 Volume XI, Issue XII, 2019 Page No: 841 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930 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.
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