CFP: Experiments with Form in Modern African American Drama (3/15/04; MLA '04)

From: Nita Kumar (nitakumar@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Jan 09 2004 - 00:12:49 EST


CFP: Experiments with Form in Modern African American Drama (Deadline: =
March 15; MLA '04)

MLA Special Session on "Experiments with Form in Modern African American =
Drama"

=20

One of the important insights of the artists in the Black Arts movement =
was the realization that form or the structural aspects of a work can =
exert a nearly hegemonic control over the thematic content. The Black =
Arts movement had provided a new perspective by insisting on a black =
view of the world. This new perspective demanded a debunking of the =
white American forms in search of what Baraka called the "post-American =
form"(Baraka, Raise 34). =20

=20

Papers are invited on new dramatic forms and elements created and =
deployed by playwrights such as Adrienne Kennedy, Amiri Baraka, August =
Wilson, Ntozake Shange, Suzan Lori-Parks and Anna Deavere Smith as =
structural correlates to their culturally specific experiences. Papers =
may also focus on how the playwrights have engaged with and transformed =
the European and African dramatic modes and techniques (such as the use =
of surrealism or the mask by Kennedy) to create new meanings.

=20

Send one-page abstract, brief CV to Nita Kumar at nitakumar@pobox.com by =
Monday, March 15, 2004. =20

=20

MLA '04 will be held in Philadelphia, PA; December 27-30 (Monday - =
Thursday). All participants should be MLA members by April 7, 2004. =20

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