The Racial-Sexual Flux: A Study Of The Urban Space In Sonia Sanchez's Plays

Sonia Sanchez is the first radical black female playwright in contemporary America to win the Obie award.Sanchez believes that drama is the most “revolutionary” artistic form and an important channel to express her political appeal.During the civil rights movement,she devoted herself to the drama writing and became a hard core in the black art movement.Most of her plays are set in urban space,with the radical artistic style to ruthlessly reveal the social truth that American government tries to conceal.For a long time,the focus of academic research is basically limited to the construction of black female identity in her plays,and little attention has been paid to the rich elements of urban space in her plays.In view of this,this thesis applies the space theory to interpret Sanchez's plays in the black arts movement,and then explores the rich political connotations therein.The thesis consists of an introduction,two chapters and a conclusion.The introduction includes three parts: the introduction to Sonia Sanchez and her plays,literature review and methodology.The first chapter dissects the true representation of urban space in detail,showing the living experience of minorities in American society.Public space is a crossing area of race,gender and class division.By focusing on such public spaces as ghettos,schools and entertainment venues,the thesis demonstrates the metaphorical functions of these spaces in the context of racism,as well as their hostility and fraudulence.Working space is the area where urban individuals work for a living,and is the main spatial carrier for them to realize their own value.By analyzing the working nature of minorities and females,this thesis explores the power dynamics surrounding race and gender identity in the space.Family space is the principal place to display urban humanity and kinship.Through the discussion of polygamy,disloyal conjugal relations and abnormal “family” relationship,the author tries to reveal the alienation of the black community caused by the historical residue of racial and gender discrimination.The second chapter examines the reconstruction of the urban space and demonstrates the political intention of blacks and females as others to subvert racism and chauvinism.The present space is the established space pattern configured by the authority in a specific social system.The characters' demolition of spatial zoning and their strategies such as spatial shift and spatial displacement reveal the black people's denial of the present space and their political desire to construct the ideal living space.Cultural space is an eminent field for a race to survive and construct their self-identity.By employing memories,black English and traditional costumes,characters in the plays shape black cultural space to counter the white mainstream discourse,which reflects African American's pursuit of freedom,equality and cultural identity.Spiritual space is an individual space to show one's mental state.The characters' praise of their self-image,spatial imagination and visions for the future demonstrate the political strategy that African Americans try to break the stereotypes of blacks in the white mainstream discourse.The last part is the conclusion.Focusing on the true representation and the reconstruction of the urban space in Sanchez's plays,this thesis reviews her writing strategy of urban space from the standpoint of realism and idealism.Through the racial-gender flux in her dramatic spatial poetics,this paper reveals that Sanchez,as a black female intellectual with humanistic spirit,tries to tell the truth and nature of American racism and sexism,and her political ideal of constructing the justice of social space.