Staging fat: Dramaturgy, female bodies, and contemporary American culture
Item
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Title
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Staging fat: Dramaturgy, female bodies, and contemporary American culture
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:3b093c035b75:10432
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identifier
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10626
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Creator
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Mobley, Jennifer-Scott,
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Contributor
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Judith Milhous
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Date
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2010
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater | Womens studies | American studies | Bodies | Dramaturgy | Fat | Women
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Abstract
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This dissertation argues that fat as it is perceived today is a particular construction of American culture and that there are a myriad of meanings associated with the fat female body in representation. I assert that, in the context of realism, fat female bodies onstage and in various cultural texts speak semiotically without saying a word and are "read" by audiences regardless of the actual text. In the first chapter I trace the history of fat in the U.S. and the evolution of fat prejudice between the late nineteenth century and the present day as well as discuss the stereotypes and fears directed at fat women in our culture. In chapter two I examine a cross section of plays that call for fat actresses and analyze how playwrights use fat to develop a character and dramaturgically as a plot device. Chapter three explores plays that do not explicitly call for fat actresses but have been traditionally cast with fatter actresses because of the implied "fat behavior" of the character. In chapter four I demonstrate the interplay of fat, race, and sexuality in various cultural texts. Chapter five investigates fat performers who either deliberately use their bodies to interrogate stereotypes or to capitalize on cultural assumptions about fat women. Finally, I argue that Americans, partially as a result of reality TV programming and the vast reach of mass media due to the internet, increasingly blur the line between representation and reality. American audiences have become so accustomed to homogenized representations of slender, white, feminine beauty onstage and in film, TV, and advertising that any performing female body that falls outside the hegemonic standard is read as "unrealistic" and therefore audiences will ascribe additional meanings to her character beyond the actual narrative.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Theatre
