Two Societal Abjects’ Struggle against the System = Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The event in American history that underlies much of the African American narrative is institutionalization of slavery. Addressing this event, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and poet Rita Dove adapted a well-known storyline from Greek tragedy, Oedipus Tyrannus, to present contentious and hidden issues of slavery in her verse play The Darker Face of the Earth. Looking at Dove’s main characters as individual abjects in relation to the inescapable discourse of the institution of slavery, this research focuses on how Dove adapted the Greek tragedy’s framework to expose the effect of the tragedy of slavery on an individual basis. Through a comparison of elements of The Darker Face of the Earth and Oedipus Tyrannus and a connection to historical fact this study aims to analyze Rita Dove’s play through the abject characters’ trajectory of resistance against a fateful system.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. Introduction
• Ⅱ. Two Societal Abjects
• Ⅲ. The System and the Abjects
• Ⅳ. Conclusion
• Works Cited

참고문헌 (Reference)

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2 Merriam-Webster, "Tyranny"

3 Sophocles, "Theban Plays" Hackett Pub 2003

4 Dove, Rita, "The Darker Face of the Earth: A Play" Story Line Press 2000

5 Steffen, Therese, "The Dark Face of the Earth" 74 : 104-123, 1997

6 Pereira, Malin, "Rita Dove’s Cosmopolitanism" University of Illinois 2003

7 "Rita Dove" Academy of American Poets

8 Carlisle, Theodora, "Reading the Scars: Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth" 34 (34): 135-150, 2000

9 Kristeva, Julia, "Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection" Columbia UP 1982

10 Winters, Loretta I, "New Faces in a Changing America: Multiracial Identity in the 21st Century" Sage Publications 2003

11 Gates, Henry Louis, "Lost Slave Ancestors Found" The Root. Univision Communications Inc 2013

12 Sexton, Danny, "Lifting the Veil: Revision and Double-Consciousness in Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth" 31 (31): 777-787, 2008

13 Wiles, David, "Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction" Cambridge UP 2000

14 Woodson, Carter G, "Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830: Together with a Brief Treatment of the Free Negro" The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History 1925

15 Bada, Valerie, "Critical Voicings of Black Liberation: Resistance and Representations in the Americas" Lit 105-113, 2003

16 Pereira, Malin, "An Interview with Rita Dove" 40 (40): 183-213, 1999