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MASARYK UNIVERSITY Changing Roles of Women in the Heidi MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Changing Roles of Women in The Heidi Chronicles Diploma Thesis Brno 2019 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, PhD. Andrea Písařová 1 Declaration Hereby I declare that I have compiled this thesis on my own and all the sources of information used in this thesis are listed in the references. Brno, 17 April 2019 …………………. Andrea Písařová Acknowledgements At this place, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, PhD., who has already been my supervisor for the second time. I especially appreciate her valuable comments, patient guidance, inspiring and positive attitude to literature as well as her way of teaching. Let me also express my gratitude to all the teachers that I have met at this faculty who influenced my professional life a great deal and who have my respect. I am also grateful for all the support from my family and friends. Thank you all. Annotation This diploma thesis deals with the issue of changing role of women in Wasserstein’s play The Heidi Chronicles. The focus of the thesis is to trace, explain and understand the shift in the role of women in the American society in the last thirty years on the background of the play from the point of view of literary devices. The first part briefly introduces the writer’s life and work and provides a short outline of the play including the context the play refers to that helps understand the changing role of women in the given eras. The second part of the thesis focuses on the close textual analysis of the play, which is the main body of the work. The outcome is presented at the end of the thesis. Keywords Wendy Wasserstein, educated women, college, second-wave feminism, career, family, equality, self-fulfilment, changing society, adoption, marriage, single woman, feminist movement, art history, double standards, gender fairness Anotace Tato diplomová práce se zabývá otázkou měnící se role žen ve hře Wendy Wassersteinové The Heidi Chronicles. Hlavním cílem této práce je vysledovat, vysvětlit a pochopit posun v roli žen v americké společnosti za posledních třicet let na pozadí hry z hlediska literárních prostředků. Úvodní část stručně představí život a práci autorky a poskytuje krátký přehled o hře včetně kontextu, ke kterému se hra vztahuje, což pomáhá porozumět měnící se roli žen v jednotlivých obdobích. Druhá část práce se zaměřuje na textovou analýzu hry, která je hlavní částí této práce, a jejíž výsledky jsou prezentovány v konečné části. Klíčová slova Wendy Wassersteinová,vzdělané ženy, vysoká škola, druhá vlna feminismu, kariéra, rodina, rovnoprávnost, sebenaplnění, měnící se společnost, adopce, manželství, svobodná žena, historie umění, genderová rovnoprávnost Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Who is Wendy Wasserstein (1950-2006) ..................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Wendy Wasserstein’s life .................................................................................................................. 6 2.2 Wendy Wasserstein’s career ............................................................................................................ 8 2.3 Evolution of feminism in the U.S. ..................................................................................................... 9 2.4 Boomer Generation ........................................................................................................................ 11 2.5 Humanism versus Feminism ........................................................................................................... 11 3. The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein .......................................................................................... 12 3.1 The play overview ........................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 The description of the main characters .......................................................................................... 16 4. Analytical Part............................................................................................................................................. 18 4.1 The parallel between the author and the protagonist ..................................................................... 19 4.2 From a student to a professional .................................................................................................... 20 4.3 Young Heidi in the turbulent 1960s ................................................................................................ 21 4.4 Heidi in the 1970s .......................................................................................................................... 28 4.5 Heidi in the 1980s .......................................................................................................................... 32 4.6 Social environment including employment conditions of women ................................................... 32 4.7 Baby as a leitmotif of the 1980s ..................................................................................................... 33 4.8 Heidi as an independent single mother .......................................................................................... 39 4.9 Heidi as a specialist on Women in Art ........................................................................................... 41 4.10 The role of friendship ..................................................................................................................... 44 4.11 Susan Johnston– Heidi’s closest female friend .............................................................................. 44 4.12 Peter Patrone – Heidi’s loyal best friend ....................................................................................... 49 4.13 Scoop Rosenbaum – Heidi’s complicated lover ............................................................................. 51 4.14 Heidi Holland’s roles ..................................................................................................................... 53 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 57 Works Cited ......................................................................................................................................................... 60 4 1. Introduction The aim of the thesis is to examine the role of women changing in the course of time as captured in the play The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein. It focuses mainly on the role of the protagonist, Heidi Holland, during the period of twenty-four years of the twentieth century covered by the play. The main reason why I have selected this play is that I wanted to use this opportunity to get acquainted with something completely new to me in the realm of the American literature as well as its history and to welcome a new challenge as the author and her work does not seem to be well-known in our region. Moreover, the themes Wasserstein covers might provide a different outlook on the role of women from today’s perspective where the position of women has changed; now facing different issues, one of which is the dilemma how to cope with the double shift of professional work and domestic work. Values and trends set in the previous century ruling the lives of our parents and grandparents have transformed tremendously and it is our task to learn from their frustrations and mistakes. The chief question I intend to explore is to try to discover the message Wasserstein’s play aimed to convey and find out what can be learned through such an examination. The introductory theoretical part of the thesis is divided into three chapters. The first one briefly deals with the author’s biography and her career. Understanding the background the play was written within is important for the reader to get an insight into the analyzed topic. The second chapter then summarizes the play to provide an overall context for the upcoming analytical part focusing in detail only on the one aspect. The main part of the thesis presents the textual analysis of the play with the main focus put on tracing the changing picture of a woman from 1965 to 1989, her developing life options, roles and values on the example of the main character and other heroines of the play. The question I intend to answer is “To what extent has the role of women, based on the main character analysis, evolved as projected in the play by Wendy Wasserstein?” The analytical part covers chapters observing the issue of role of women from the point of view of the main character focusing on her professional and personal life, which covers almost three decades. Roles of other major characters of the play are treated in such a way that helps understand the environment of the decades the play refers to. 5 The final part of the thesis provides conclusion based on the textual analysis answering the main research question in general. 2. Who is Wendy Wasserstein (1950-2006) Since our cultural environment is not very familiar with the personality of Wendy Wasserstein, this chapter attempts to present a short overview of Wasserstein’s life and work. Wendy Wasserstein was a successful playwright thus the critics predominantly
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