'Theatre is life': Fornes, feminisms, and feminist epistemology

This dissertation explores the use of feminist epistemology as an aesthetic device and pedagogical tool in six plays written by Cuban-born avant-garde playwright Maria Irene Fornes: Fefu and Her Friends (1977), Mud (1983), Sarita (1984), The Conduct of Life (1985), Abingdon Square (1987), and Springtime (1989). Written during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980's, these plays privilege the inner lives of women and highlight women's reality as a standpoint for interrogating constructions of knowledge. This study integrates feminist theatre criticism, production reviews, interviews, and feminist theory to examine how Fornes's multiple-consciousness enables her to employ traditional theatrical conventions in American drama, through innovative methods, to create a genuinely unique vision in American theatre.;Each of the main chapters presents a close reading of a play utilizing feminist theory to reveal multiple approaches for interrogating feminist epistemology in Fornes's drama. Chapter 1: "Fefu and Her Friends, 'Dismantling the Master's House'" uses Catharine MacKinnon's work on consciousness-raising, Audre Lorde's early essays on feminist consciousness, Marilyn Frye's theories on women's political reality, and Maria Lugones's theory of "world-travelling" to explore the lives of eight middle-class women. Chapter 2: "Mud, 'A Theatre of Heartbreak'" utilizes bell hook's theory of the "engaged voice" and Audre Lorde's reconceptualization of the erotic in looking at the main character's struggle for autonomy through literacy. Chapter 3: "Sarita, 'Outlaw Emotions'" looks at emotion as a critical component of feminist epistemology in the coming-of-age story of an Hispanic woman in search of identity, using Alison Jaggar's theory of "outlaw emotion." Chapter 4: "The Conduct of Life, 'Re/Presenting' Power and Patriarchy" examines Tracy Wolf's theory of the "re/presentation" of gender and violence and the impact of sexual violence in the lives of three women living in a militaristic state. Chapter 5: "Abingdon Square, 'The Outsider Within'" adopts Patricia Hill Collins' theory of the "outsider" to look at the sexual and spiritual awakening of a young woman in her struggle for identity. Chapter 6: "Springtime , 'The Economy of Tenderness'" employs Suzanne Pharr's theory of the interconnectedness of homophobia, heterosexism, and sexism to examine the implications these biases have on a lesbian relationship.