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MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO Human Rights Expressed by Voices of the Characters in Ntozake Shange´S Plays

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MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO Human Rights Expressed by Voices of the Characters in Ntozake Shange´S Plays MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Human Rights Expressed by Voices of the Characters in Ntozake Shange´s Plays Bachelor Thesis Brno 2018 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Jana Veselá, DiS. Bibliografický záznam Veselá, Jana. Základní lidská práva vyjádřena hlasy postav v divadelních hrách Ntozake Shange: bakalářská práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2018. 62 s. Vedoucí bakalářské práce Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Bibliography Veselá, Jana. Human Rights Expressed by Voices of the Characters in Ntozake Shange´s Plays: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2018. 62 pages. The supervisor of the bachelor thesis Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Anotace Bakalářská práce Základní lidská práva vyjádřena hlasy postav v divadelních hrách Ntozake Shange pojednává o divadelních hrách Ntozake Shange. Práce obsahuje informace o autorce, představuje typické znaky jejích her. Cílem práce je analýza myšlenkových postojů postav v hrách For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Spell #7, A Photograph: Lovers in Motion, Boogie Woogie Landscapes a ve hře From Okra to Greens. Součástí rozboru jsou i monology či básně, které slouží také k předvádění na jevišti. Jedná se o The Love Space Demands a I Heard Eric Dolphy in His Eyes. Práce porovnává ženské i mužské kvality postav či jejich charakterové nedostatky zasazené do černošského prostředí s ohledem na kulturní rozdíly mezi černou a bílou komunitou. Závěr práce tvoří zhodnocení oblastí lidských práv, jež jsou obsaženy v názorech postav. Abstract The bachelor thesis Human Rights Expressed by Voices of the Characters in Ntozake Shange´s Plays deals with stage plays by Ntozake Shange. The thesis contains information about the playwright, introduces typical features of her plays. The aim of the thesis is the analysis of character mental attitudes in the stage plays called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Spell #7, A Photograph: Lovers in Motion, Boogie Woogie Landscapes and in the stage play From Okra to Greens. As the part of the analysis there are also some monologues or poems that are used for performing on the stage. Specifically, it is about The Love Space Demands and I Heard Eric Dolphy in His Eyes. The thesis compares female and male figure qualities or their character imperfections embedded in black surroundings with regard to cultural differences between the black and white community. The conclusion of the thesis forms the evaluation of the human right areas that are incorporated in the opinions of the characters. Klíčová slova černošská komunita, černošské ženy v literatuře, řeč těla, černošské bohémství, postavy v hrách Ntozake Shange, choreopoema, současné spisovatelky dramatu, diskriminace, rozmanitost, feminismus, lidové umění, role pohlaví, základní lidská práva, nesnášenlivost k ženám, fonetický pravopis, autorka divadelních her, rasismus, segregovaný Keywords all-black community, black American women in literature, black bohemianism, body language, characters in Ntozake Shange´s plays, choreopoem, contemporary dramatists, discrimination, diversity, feminism, folk art, gender roles, human rights, mysogyny, phonetic spelling, playwright, racism, segregated Prohlášení „Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“ ……………………………………... V Brně, 20. března 2018 Jana Veselá, DiS. Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D., for her support, patience, constructive criticism and valuable advice she provided as my supervisor. “Women don't rape women,” she said. “And I began reading my poetry in women's bars. Not lesbian bars, necessarily, but women's bars, where they can go without being hassled or having someone try to pick them up. Anyhow those were the only places that would hire me, and when I was there I realized I was where I belonged.” “I won't ever write a part for a white person,” she said. “They already own the theaters, so let them do it. I'll do my writing for black actors; David Mamet will write a whole lot of pieces for working‐class whites.” “It was difficult and very unpleasant to do interviews, because they always were trying to paint me as a woman who hated black men, and I didn’t and don’t. But that was a difficult time for me.” “I thought I was being punished because I hadn’t kept doing the writing I wanted to do. Then I decided that it was just fate, and my aunt had Parkinson’s, so even though one side of the family was having heart attacks, the other side of the family was having nerve disease, so I got the worst of both sides, I guess.” Ntozake Shange Content 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 9 2 Ntozake Shange, her life and beliefs .................................................................... 111 3 Features of plays .................................................................................................. 166 4 Plays and opinion-significant characters ......... Chyba! Záložka není definována.3 4.1 For Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide Chyba! Záložka není definována.3 4.1.1 The Lady in Brown, Yellow, Red, Blue, Green, Purple and Orange and their main ideas…………………………………………………… 24 4.2 Spell #7...................................................... Chyba! Záložka není definována.0 4.2.1 Lou………………………………………………………………………..30 4.3 The Love Space Demands…...………………………………………………..Chyba! Záložka není definována.4 4.4 I Heard Eric Dolphy in His Eyes ............... Chyba! Záložka není definována.6 4.5 A Photograph: Lovers in Motion .............. Chyba! Záložka není definována.8 4.5.1 Sean David and Earl…………………………………………………..39 4.5.2 Michael, Nevada and Claire……………………………………………39 4.5.3 Analysis of the main ideas as to human rights…………………………41 4.6 Boogie Woogie Landscapes ...................... Chyba! Záložka není definována.4 4.6.1 Layla and male and female night-life companions……………………..45 4.7 From Okra to Greens ........................................................................................ 50 4.7.1 Analysis of the main ideas as to human rights……………………………53 5 Summary of the main topics concerning human rights .......................................... 56 6 Conclusion ....................................................... Chyba! Záložka není definována.8 7 Works cited………………………………………………………………….……..61 1 Introduction This bachelor thesis deals with my own analysis of five plays of Ntozake Shange. There are many reasons why I have chosen her plays for the analysis. One of them is that I have watched the film For Colored Girls by Tylor Perry and I was charmed by it. So I bought the book For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf and read it even though I already knew all the plot twists. I was surprised with the way of Ntozake Shange´s style of writing. I wanted to discover more about her plays and especially to find out more about this author who identifies herself as a poet first and a playwright second. Although Shange´s books are not for everybody and for the white the texts are difficult to understand because the texts contains a lot of information from cultural background of the black community, the students of English could find the books interesting as to spelling at least. The next reason is that the book contains many strong ideas of the author that every reader should discover on their own. I thought it would be a good challenge for me to find the topics of the plays and find out the main ideas of the characters. The third one is connected to the language of the book, which is demanding to read, and you have to read the text aloud. Moreover, no one book is translated into Czech so the possibility of the translation and working with the text is another reason to do my best and to focus on my skills and knowledge of understanding of the text and looking for the meaning of the lines. Why lines? Ntozake Shange is not the author of traditional plays but her plays are in a form of poems that are read on the stage. She managed to create her own style of writing which she terms as a choreopoem. This bachelor thesis is divided into several parts. At the beginning, there is an introduction of the playwright. Then the thesis deals with the features of plays, explains the term “choreopoem” and works out some of the features into details. 10 The chapter four contains the plays and opinions of the characters. This part is the most important part of my analysis. The plays are introduced briefly. Each play contains examples of the ideas of the characters which are related to the human rights. The ideas are commented by me. The aim of my thesis is to give a proper view of Ntozake Shange´s work and focus on her way of presenting the black community and expressing her wishes for better life for the black. Ntozake Shange as the playwright aims her attention to all-black communities and is not frightened to name things that function or do not function for the black. She directs her attention to the issues that are not easy to be pronounced aloud and she manages to confront uncomfortable human conditions of black people. She focuses on the realities of black people and mainly on black women with the goal to change at least something. 11 2 Ntozake Shange, her life and beliefs In this chapter I will introduce Ntozake Shange. Firstly, I have to say that the author is reluctant to talk about her life and she does not like to comment her life at all. So the following pieces of information from her life are very scanty. Inspite of finding so little about her life, my research has revealed the following information.
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