On The Exploration Of Female Identity In Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles

Wendy Wasserstein was one of the foremost female playwright of American theatre.Deeply influenced by second-wave feminism,in her creations,the female characters in her plays deal with the conflict between traditional and new values.Wasserstein received overwhelming popularity and success since her play The Heidi Chronicles was awarded the Pulitzer Prize,the Tony,the Critics’ Circle Award,the Drama Desk Award,and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in1989.In this play,she took advantage of humorous language to express the confusion and bewilderment of the “baby boomer” women as they confronted various life choices.The Heidi Chronicles,as a semi-autobiographical play,has two acts,each of which begins in1989 and unfolds in the form of a memoir.The central theme around which the play’s plot revolves is Heidi’s quest to find her proper place in society and her attempt to free herself from social conventions and the identity imposed on her.Since its release,a series of mixed reviews of The Heidi Chronicles have been published by theater and literary critics.A number of scholars have argued that the play is racist in that it does not deal with ethnic women.Other scholars have criticized the play for being overrated because it is tainted with feminism but fails to provide a feminist role model.These reviews are highly illuminating,yet they are untenable from a systematic and theoretical point of view.Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of performativity of gender identity,this thesis analyzes the exploration of the female identity of the main character Heidi who constructs her identity by assuming and reenacting the gender norms of her time,rebelling against gender norms,and refusing to perform her gender role per gender norms.In doing so,this thesis questions gender identity as an innate and stable core that preexists the individual’s words and actions,and argues that such an identity is just a product of the interaction of social and cultural discourses,which is essentially an unstable,fluid,and fragmented one.The thesis consists of three parts,among which the main body is sub-divided into three chapters:The first part is an introduction to the thesis,including a brief overview to Wendy Wasserstein and The Heidi Chronicles,literature review,theoretical basis,and structural layout of the idea,emphasizing the significance and feasibility of applying the theory of performativity of gender identity.The main body includes three chapters.Chapter one analyzes the main character’s construction of the identity of the ideal lover in accordance with gender norms and male discourse.The ideal lover model of the 1970 s that Heidi followed and practiced has norms and rules derived from the exemplary images of femininity fabricated by patriarchal discourses.Now that the gender norms are socially and culturally constructed,the female identity that Heidi was trained to adopt is a regulatory fiction.Chapter two discusses the main character’s voices for marginalized women and search for recognition from the outside world.In her quest to liberate women from the preconceptions of gender norms,Heidi brings the marginalized women back into the public sphere.Thus,in this sense,she not only builds connections between herself and the marginalized women but also regains the legitimacy of the historically absent women.Chapter three is a discussion on the main character’s search for the self by the construction of new identities to gain self-identification through the transcendence of gender roles.In her search for her proper place in society,Heidi leaves the space to question gender norms by reassuming and repelling the prescribed gender identities.The rebellion against prescriptive gender identities frees Heidi from the established norms of her time,while creating more possibilities for women.The third part serves as the conclusion of the thesis,summarizing the main contents of the thesis and outlining the value of studying The Heidi Chronicles with the help of the theory of performativity of gender identity and the significance of the thesis.