Self and Space in the Theater of Susan Glaspell

Founding member of the Provincetown Players, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, best-selling novelist and short story writer Susan Glaspell (1876–1948) was a great contributor to American literature. An exploration of eleven plays written between the years 1915 and 1943, this critical study focuses on one of Glaspell’s central themes, the interplay between place and identity. This study examines the means Glaspell employs to engage her characters in proxemical and verbal dialectics with the forces of place that turn them into victims of location. Of particular interest are her characters’ attempts to escape the influence of territoriality and shape identities of their own.

Noelia Hernando-Real teaches English and North American literature at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain. The author of numerous scholarly books, she is the vice president of the Susan Glaspell Society.

Noelia Hernando-Real
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 214
Bibliographic Info: 11 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6394-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8832-2
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1. Towards Geopathology in Glaspell’s Modern Drama 11

2. American Geomythologies Revisited as Part of Dramatic Geopathology 31

3. Geodichotomies in the Configuration of Dramatic Geopathology 59

4. The Burden of the Past in Dramatic Geopathology 91

5. Imagery of Death in Dramatic Geopathology 114

6. Dramatic Principles of Departure 146

Afterword 175

Chapter Notes 179

Bibliography 185

Index 201

“impressive…highly valuable”—American Studies: A Quarterly;“extensive research…well-documented”—Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos; “Hernando-Real is to be applauded for the comprehensive nature of her study…the study’s sophistication allows it to rank highly in the current wave of Glaspell criticism, helping us to understand thematically and theatrically Susan Glaspell’s remarkable contributions to founding modern drama in the United States”—Eugene O’Neill Review.