South Asian American Theatre and the Politics of Belonging
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by D-Scholarship@Pitt Desis in the House: South Asian American Theatre and the Politics of Belonging by Rohini Chaki B.A., Jadavpur University, 2005 M.A., Jadavpur University, 2007 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2016 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Rohini Chaki It was defended on April 12, 2016 and approved by Neilesh Bose, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Victoria Kathleen George, Professor, Department of Theatre Arts Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre Arts Dissertation Advisor: Bruce McConachie, Professor, Department of Theatre Arts ii Copyright © by Rohini Chaki 2016 iii Desis in the House: South Asian American Theatre and the Politics of Belonging Rohini Chaki, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2016 This dissertation attempts to update the traditional understanding of what constitutes American theatre by bringing into focus works by South Asian American playwrights addressing the racialization of desis - a large and diverse community of people with origins in South Asia - who have, after the events of 9/11, become questionable citizen subjects in the United States. I examine the various ways in which the plays under consideration represent the negotiation of South Asian American identity in its quest to establish belonging on the American nation-space. I look at scripts and productions to explore responses to the performance of the American desi subject’s precarious belonging in a national space that sees them variously as cultural others or even threats.
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