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Reproductive Rights As Theatrical Counterculture in Women's Drama

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Reproductive Rights As Theatrical Counterculture in Women's Drama University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2015-04-27 Reproductive Rights as Theatrical Counterculture in Women's Drama Arciniega, Maria Arciniega, M. (2015). Reproductive Rights as Theatrical Counterculture in Women's Drama (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27637 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2170 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Reproductive Rights as Theatrical Counterculture in Women’s Drama by Maria Lourdes Arciniega A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2015 © Maria Lourdes Arciniega 2015 Abstract This dissertation engages with a critically neglected subgenre of dramas by women on reproductive rights, which emerged during the first two decades of the twentieth century, and resurfaced towards the end of the same century. Since these plays also intersected with the rise of feminist movements, women playwrights created feminist spaces of performance for their work, which had been thus far marginalized from canonical discourse. The first two chapters of this dissertation focus on the plays of British birth control pioneer Marie Stopes, and on dramatic texts by African American playwrights Mary Burrill and Angelina Grimké, which appeared in Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Review. These amateur works introduced scientific, eugenic, and racial concerns into dramatic representations of feminist issues. The third chapter features professional playwright Susan Glaspell’s reproductive rights dramas, Chains of Dew (1921) and The Verge (1922), both written for the last season of the Provincetown Players. Glaspell introduced Brechtian theatrical innovations into the birth control rhetoric reinforcing a growing foundation of women’s activist theatre. The second half of the research centers on a similar confluence of feminist rights and reproductive rights, which appeared with the rise of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs), such as in-vitro fertilization, stem cell research and cloning. These contemporary and recent plays pushed back against the use of artificial gestational procedures which sometimes effaced women from their central roles in natural, biological reproduction. Thus, Michelene Wandor’s AID Thy Neighbour (1978) and Lisa Loomer’s Expecting Isabel (2005) offer feminist counterpoints to man-made in-vitro fertilization policies. Wendy Lill’s Chimera (2007) and Cassandra Medley’s Relativity (2006) in turn tackle stem cell research issues from a matriarchal standpoint while also echoing some of the eugenic and racial concerns raised by the birth control plays. The last chapter takes the critical discussion to the ii frontiers of reproductive rights technology and ethics through Caryl Churchill’s A Number (2002) and Liz Lochhead’s Blood and Ice (2003). Churchill’s drama produced and reproduced a feminist science rhetoric that became a blueprint for female dramatic agency, while Lochhead’s work reasserted women’s standing as figures of scientific and literary authority. In summary, this dissertation traces how women playwrights deployed control of biological reproduction as a dramatic theme to revision and reassert women’s often overlooked contributions to canonical theatre. By focusing on reproductive rights drama, women playwrights created a counterculture of independent, continuous, and retroactive feminist theatre. iii Acknowledgements I feel immensely privileged to have had Dr. Susan Bennett as supervisor, mentor, and professor during my graduate journey. Her integral approach to the graduate program led me to experience and exercise with confidence multiple roles in the university environment, where I was elected to leadership positions in Departmental committees, organized and led seminar panels in national conferences, and even presented a plenary paper at a North American conference. Her constant encouragement and support in all phases of my graduate career, have given me a model of academic conduct to emulate for future endeavours. I also extend my heartfelt appreciation to the distinguished panel of academics that make up my Supervisory Committee: Dr. Adrienne Kertzer, Dr. Harry Vandervlist, Dr. Catherine Burwell, and Dr. Kirsten Shepherd-Barr. In addition, Dr. Stefania Forlini gave me some invaluable feedback on two chapters in the early stages of the dissertation, and I consider her an integral member of this process. My graduate school experience would not have been possible without the unwavering support of my family. I completed this project because I had a grandfather, a father, and a husband who believed in my ability to achieve often daunting goals. Gender was not a barrier to them, nor a marginalizing obstacle to achieving academic or professional success. While my grandfather and my father were not here to witness my academic journey, my husband, Alfonso, has been my unwavering companion throughout the process. I am here because he has stood behind me, by me, and beside me, every step of the way. Finally, I thank my children, Diana and Diego, who grew into adulthood throughout this project, and have been my most loyal and enthusiastic cheerleaders providing me with much needed respite and encouragement. iv Dedication To the determined women in my family who forged the path I now follow, and to the steadfast men who walked beside them. v Table of Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................iv Dedication............................................................................................................................v Table of Contents................................................................................................................vi Epigraph........................................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: MARIE STOPES ....................................................................................................... 15 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................15 1.2 Becoming a Feminist Scientist ................................................................................17 1.3 Translating Science into Birth Control Activism ....................................................21 1.4 The Emergence of a Birth Control Playwright........................................................30 1.5 Transforming into a Feminist Playwright................................................................37 CHAPTER TWO: MARY BURRILL AND ANGELINA GRIMKÉ ................................................ 44 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................44 2.2 Periodicals, Theatre, and the Race Factor ...............................................................48 2.3 African American Drama in The Birth Control Review..........................................52 2.4 Reproductive Rights and the Menace of Lynching .................................................54 2.5 The Eugenics Agenda..............................................................................................63 2.6 The New African American Woman Playwright ....................................................66 CHAPTER THREE: SUSAN GLASPELL ............................................................................................ 71 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................71 3.2 A Feminist Theatrical Community..........................................................................73 3.3 The Stage as a Biological and Creative Womb .......................................................83 3.4 Creating a Dramatic Space through Biology...........................................................89 3.5 The Legacy of Modern Reproductive Rights Dramas.............................................95 CHAPTER FOUR: MICHELENE WANDOR AND LISA LOOMER............................................ 97 4.1 An Absence of Reproductive Rights Drama: 1930-1970........................................97 4.2 The Return of Reproductive Rights Politics to the Theatrical Stage.....................103 4.3 A Feminist Theatrical and Scientific Community.................................................106 4.4 Manhandling the Reproductive Process ................................................................112 4.5 Fighting a Feminist Backlash: The Rise of Women’s Drama in the United States115 4.6 Dramatizing the Infertility Epidemic.....................................................................119
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