READERS THEATRE AS LITERARY CRITICISM: THE THEORY AND ITS APPLICATION TO CARSON MCCULLERS' 'THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING'

Readers theatre is a valuable critical method for the study of literature. By combining literary analysis and group performance, readers theatre accomplishes several goals. First, it lessens the gap between the read and spoken word. Second, it provides a creative medium within which different analytical perspectives are appropriate; and third, readers theatre creates an active communication situation in which the director conveys her reading of the literature to an audience.;Chapter Three is concerned with McCullers' play and the shifts in emphasis from the novel necessitated by the dramatic mode. In this chapter, the staging of a play is compared with the staging of a readers theatre production of the same novel, and the effects of each form are analyzed. Included as an Appendix to the dissertation is a readers theatre script adaptation of The Member of the Wedding, followed by production cues for performance.;Feminist analysis and the application of communication theory proved to be useful methods of studying this text, and performance was shown to be an exciting means of presenting a literary analysis. By establishing a communication model and employing various critical perspectives, one can create a production which presents a well-rounded interpretation of a literary work.;This dissertation treats the literary text The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, focusing first on the novel, then on the play, and finally on the readers theatre script, always considering the possibilities for performance. The Introduction to this study presents a communication model in which the connections among the author, text, and silent readers of a novel, and the director, script, and audience of a readers theatre are established. In Chapter Two, Frankie's androgynous qualities and her journey as heroine are explored, as are the complexities of Berenice's dual roles as archetypal guide and traditional "mammy" figure within the context of the novel. Biographical information on both the Southern author and this Southern reader is provided, as is a feminist analysis of the characters in McCullers' text. Literary interpretation is alternated with suggestions for its staging.