Ağaoğlu and Fornes: The Critiques of Patriarchal Society and of Gender Hierarchies

In this paper two woman dramatists are going to be compared and contrasted as far as their cultures and reflection of cultures on their plays are concerned. Two women playwrights, the Turkish Adalet Ağaoğlu (1929-2020) and the Cuban-American Maria Irene Fornes (1930-2018) are contemporaries and hence are the products of the same historical era.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Ağaoğlu and Fornes

Ağaoğlu and Fornes: The Critiques of Patriarchal Society and of Gender Hierarchies

Ağaoğlu and Fornes had started writing plays in almost the same years. Ağaoğlu was born in 1929 (in Nallıhan, near Ankara) and she entered the world of drama and performance arts in the 1960s. Quite similarly, Fornes was born in 1930 (in Havana, Cuba) but immigrated to the US in 1945. Although they came from different countries and have different cultural backgrounds and codes, they both experimented with innovative dramatic devices and focused on the issues of women. Fornes is involved in the early days of the off-off Broadway in the 1960s. She had used unusual dialogues, unconventional dramatic structures and stage design under the impact of Samuell Beckett. Yet it I difficult to characterize the plays of Fornes but Patricia R. Schoeder locates her within the traditions of realistic theatre and reevaluates the “realism” of Maria Irene Fornes in terms of cultural feminism (1).

Keywords:

ağaoğlu and fornes, society gender hierarchies,

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Patricia R. Schroeder, The Feminist Possibilities of Dramatic Realism, Associated University Press, 1996, 15-43.
Zehra İpşiroğlu, “Evcilik Oyunu,” Tiyatro, Mitos, Kültür Dizisi, May 1998, 45-46.
John Gassner and Edward Quinn (eds), The Reader’s Encycopedia of WORLD DRAMA, New York: Thomas Y. Company, 1969, 10. Ibid p. 870.
David Savran, In Their Own World, Contemporary American Playwrights, Theater Communications Group, Inc., 1988, 51-69.
Adalet Ağaoğlu, Toplu Oyunlar, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1996, 374-430.
Ahmet Cemal, Kozalar, Tiyatro, İstanbul: sayı 76, Aralık 1997, 42.
Maria Irene Fornes, Fefu and Friends, New York: PAJ Publications, 1992, 7.
Maria Irene Fornes Plays, New York City, PAJ Publications, 1992, 19. The plays Mud, The Danube, The Conduct of Life, Sarita are from this collection.
June Schleuter, Modern American Drama. The Female Canon, London: Associated University Press, 1990, 224.
Matthew C. Roudane (ed.) Public Issues, Private Tensions, Contemporary American Drama, New York, AMS Press, 1993, 179-194.
Pınar Şenel, Kitaplık, A.Ü. Tiyatrosu, Ankara: Ocak-Şubat, 1997, 34-35.