The Dis-Play's the Thing: Gender and Public Sphere in Contemporary British Theater

Abstract

Current discussion of feminism and often proceeds as if it is possible to take for granted the identification of theater and the representation of by way of the creation of significant stage roles for women, a concern with the gender roles in society, exploration of the texture of women's worlds and an urge towards the politicization of sexuality.' This list of issues seems right enough, but it obscures a characteristic tension in feminist work-between celebration and critique, between asserting as self-evident the unity of women's practice and women's studies on the basis of gender above all and the acknowledgment, not simply and blandly of difference, but of differences and allegiances among women (and men) that challenge any easy assumption of gender solidarity. Recent feminist investigations into narrative fiction have moved beyond what Teresa de Lauretis calls mainstream feminism--an insistent emphasis on finding women's voices for an alternative feminist canon--toward feminisms that include the critique of the gendered nature of all literary form and social relations as well as the interaction of gender with other allegiances such as class, age, and race.2