Suchergebnisse

The creation of the American nation and the spread of American nation­alism relied heavily upon a homogenizing social philosophy that extolled liberty and equality and united all citizens in the promotion and demon­stration of public and private virtue. However, despite the much-adver­tised "self-evident" truths, early American society was tormented by fears of internal dissension and the cultural disruption of an "unqualified" mass of non-Americans. This paper examines how the concepts of the "individ­ual" and the "mass" were implicated in the ideological mechanisms of the political ideology of republicanism which tended to smooth over the nu­ances and complexities of a hardly acknowledged ethnically and culturally heterogeneous society. By focusing on Robert Munford's post-revolution­ary satire The Patriots (c. 1777) as the only dramatic attempt of the time that exposed the limits and contradictions of the republican experiment, this paper will probe into the ideological illusionism of republicanism and explore the reality of the nativist exclusiveness of American society and the rigid boundaries of the American political identity.

Mercy Otis Warren, one of the most distinguished female playwrights in American theatrical history, successfully employed the satirical farce as a dramatic form in an attempt to encourage political and social reform during the time of the American Revolution. Although she was most admired for her work and was actually encouraged to display her talent by her husband and her close friends, Warren found it very difficult to combine her feminine identity with her artistic genius. Αware of the conνentional notion that literary women relinquished all those feminine virtues which made up the ideal of "True Womanhood", just because they ventured into an exclusiνely male area, Warren was particularly anxious to reconcile her roles as a woman and writer. The only way for her to resolve her inner strife was to enter the public world of literary creation anonymously. ; Μια από τις πιο διακεκριμένες δραματουργούς του Αμερικανικού θεάτρου, η Mercy Otis Warren, χρησιμοποίησε με επιτυχία τη σατιρική φάρσα με απώτερο σκοπό να συμβάλει στην πολιτικο-κοινωνική αναμόρφωση κατά τη διάρκεια της Αμερικανικής Επανάστασης. Όμως, παρά το θαυμασμό και την ηθική επιβράβευση από τον άνδρα της και τους στενούς της φίλους, η Warren δυσκολεύτηκε να εναρμονίσει τους ρόλους της ως γυναίκα από τη μια πλευρά και ως συγγραφέας από την άλλη. Γνωρίζοντας πολύ καλά τις υπάρχουσες κοινωνικές προκαταλήψεις ενάντια στη γυναικεία λογοτεχνική έκφραση, ο μοναδικός τρόπος να δώσει απάντηση στο μεγάλο δίλημμα που τη βασάνιζε ήταν να κρύψει τη γυναικεία της ταυτότητα δημοσιεύοντας τα έργα της ανώνυμα.