Native American Female Playwrights And Their Role In Growth And Development Of Native American Drama: An Overview

Abstract

The Native American Literature has its root in the form of oral storytelling tradition before Europeans arrived on Native American lands. It was then in the 18th century it developed into written literature. Early Native American writers used poetry, novel, and autobiography to express their feelings for human rights, lands, culture, sovereignty, and their community. Despite its rich legacy, Native American drama faced challenges and hardly received its recognition as a genre in later half of the twentieth century. Not only men playwrights, but also scholarly and prolific Native American women playwrights have contributed significantly to the success of Native American theatre. Their unique writing styles and contributions are equally important as male playwrights. The present paper studies Native American drama with the aim to find out the contribution of Native American women playwrights to Native American theatre and drama. The present study being interpretive and descriptive in nature hence it has applied close reading and interpretation of the primary and secondary sources.