Searching For An Equilibrium: Racial Politics In Suzan-Lori Parks’ Lincoln Plays

Suzan-Lori Parks,the first female African-American playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama,explores the racial issues that arise from white dominance in both old and new facets of American society,including the racial stereotypes proliferated by this society,and the notion that it is possible for African-Americans to use their uniqueness to dispel the idea of essential blackness.In Parks’ Lincoln Plays,namely Topdog/Underdog and The America Play,it is essential that the playwright makes the black character perform the white.This dissertation focuses on the racial politics in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Lincoln Plays,and explores the special equilibrium Parks tries to achieve between the white and the black peoples on stage.Parks makes explorations into the racial problems of America,which is conducted with the construction of the racial politics.Firstly,the presence of whiteness in Lincoln plays is often deliberately concealed.In order to reach a degree of balance,Parks alters the racial discourse,increases the use of black vernacular and prevents white actors from appearing in the plays,thus breaking the racial stereotype of the main character in a play often being a white male.Parks specifies that this allows an in-depth exploration of blackness and the creation of African Americans in states other than the oftportrayed-role of the oppressed in a white-dominant world.What Suzan-Lori Parks emphasizes is not the black man oppressed by or obsessed with the white-run society,but the whole life of the blackness with their variety.Secondly,this dissertation discusses Parks’ own racial fabrication,from the perspective of the family trauma,exploring a new route to the black development in America.The relationship between black and white communities is inextricably intertwined,as is the relationship between the American individual and the American community.The dissertation examines representations of race in Parks’ dramaturgy,noting that the presence of whiteness is often deliberately concealed in her Lincoln plays.In the process of constructing the new racial formation in Lincoln Plays,Parks tries to make a transformation of the American “melting pot”,which can truly explore a different equation for black people on stage.The dissertation concludes with the hope that Parks achieves an equilibrium between the portrayal of blackness and whiteness in her dramatic works.