Susan Sontag’s Drama Writing Research

Susan Sontag（1933—2004），a well-known contemporary American writer and critic, is well received by intellectual of the world. Her works have a wide range, including comments, essays, novels as well as plays. The author selected Sontag’s three typicalplays to analyze under the background of post-modernism. While Sontag analyzed previous dramas, she integrated her point of view, showing her unique theretical ideas. Dueto decentralization of her dramatic theory, this paper, based on her concrete works, tries to find out Sontag’s dramatic theory and her influence on American theatre.This dissertation is mainly divided into five parts. The first part simply introducesSontag and her works, and analyzes the pastmodern’s effect on her growth and works,and her contribution on the postmodern literature. The second part analyzes Duet for Cannibals and explores the will of power in the play. The third part uses Sontag’s aesthetic theory to explicate Brother Cral and interprets the phenomenon of silence in the play.The fourth part further elaborates Alice in bed from the form and content to reveal the pain and helpless of the women after their self-awareness had awaken. The fifth partdeeply analyzes the connection among three plays and the postmodern thoughts they reflect. On this basis, the author sums up the art characters of Sontag’s drama writing, andher effect on contemporary American drama.