Spatiality And Subjectivity In Marsha Norman’s Getting Out And ’Night,Mother

As one of the most important contemporary American playwrights of the 20^thcentury,Marsha Norman（1947-）,together with a group of female playwrights,injects new vitality into the male-dominated American dramatic circle and articulates“the new voice in theatre”.She is concerned about marginalized women’s fate and calls the female protagonists in her plays“trapped girls”,implying women’s survival predicament and identity crisis in spaces.Based on that,this thesis is to probe into the familial space,social space and mental space constructed in Norman’s two representative plays Getting Out（1977）and’night,Mother（1983）by drawing upon Henri Lefebvre’s theory of“the production of space”,so as to reveal the root and cause of women’s loss of subjectivity and the arduous passage of reconstructing subjectivity,explore the awakening of marginalized women’s subject consciousness and present Norman’s views on female identity.The thesis is composed of five parts.The introduction briefly introduces Marsha Norman and her works,literature review of her works at home and abroad and the theoretical framework of this thesis.The main body is divided into three chapters to analyze the relationship between space and subjectivity in Getting Out and’night,Mother from three aspects.Chapter One discusses women’s loss of subjectivity in familial space.Familial space is the core space in Norman’s plays,and it is also the important living space for women.It produces political relations among family members and has a certain hierarchical order,which to some extent restrains and oppresses vulnerable women physically and mentally.In Getting Out,in a dysfunctional family,Arlene suffers from her father’s sexual assault and her mother’s indifference,which lead to the split between herself and the family.She gradually loses her subjectivity and becomes a degenerate girl.And Jessie in’night,Mother has to passively accept the suffocating mother-daughter relationship and her brother Dawson’s control and intrusion of her own life in repressive familial space.She has no right to air her own view,not to say an independent identity.Chapter Two sheds light on the futility of protagonists’reconstructing subjectivity in social space.Social space is a comprehensive embodiment of various social elements,which emphasizes politics,class,power,gender and other factors.In Getting Out,the discipline,punishment and domestication in highly centralized prison make Arlene an enslaved woman.And out of the prison,due to the ex-con’s identity,occupational options are limited.Seemingly,what she can choose is to become Bennie’s wife or go back to her former role as a prostitute.Inside and outside the prison,Arlene suffers double restrictions in social space,which lead to the divided selves and the failure of reconstructing subjectivity.In’night,Mother,Jessie’s attempts to integrate into the society and establish good social relationships with others are also doomed to be a failure due to her unqualified body that does not conform to social norms as body is the main producer of social space.Space practice in social space not only fails to help Jessie reconstruct subjectivity,but also pushes her into an abyss of despair and results in her damaged self-identity.Chapter Three explores women’s reconstruction of subjectivity in mental space.Mental space is individuals’internal projection of the external space,so women’s sufferings in familial space and social space lead to the trauma of their mental space.To realize the reconstruction of subjectivity,women constantly struggle with the external environment,thus achieving the balance between the inner world and the outside world.Arlene in Getting Out finally chooses to get rid of male control,reconciles and integrates with her past self,thus achieving the wholeness and stopping struggling in the mental space interwoven by memories and the reality.And she finally decides to go to the workplace to make a living and be independent,so as to reconstruct subjectivity.And in’night,Mother,after the epilepsy is nearly cured and she is able to control her body,Jessie reacquaints herself with fragmented memories and her subject consciousness gradually awakens.Eventually,she makes up her mind to control the only thing she has,that is her own life,to gain the right to say,to gain dignity and subjectivity by committing suicide.The last part is the conclusion.Space and subjectivity are mutually constructed.Both Getting Out and’night,Mother illustrate that spaces that protagonists are in do harm to them physically and psychologically.The restraints and oppression in familial space result in women’s loss of subjectivity and the obstacles in social space make women suffer the subjectivity crisis again in the course of reconstruction.Meanwhile,spaces also provide women with opportunities to reconstruct themselves.Women’s constant struggle in spaces and their awakening in mental space help them reconstruct subjectivity.And two protagonists’different ways of reconstruction reflect the playwright’s different considerations on women’s way out.Employing Lefebvre’s space theory to reinterpret Marsha Norman’s two plays shows that space theory can reflect women’s situations in different spaces and reveal the underlying reasons why women are in trouble and plight.And this is of great significance not only for women in the 1970s and 1980s,but also for women today.