Re)Constructing Maternal Performance in Twentieth-Century American Drama (What Is Theatre?

Looking at a century of American theatre, McDaniel investigates how racially-informed notions of motherhood become sites of resistance to social and political hierarchies. (Re)Constructing Maternal Performance in Twentieth-Century Drama locates a broad tradition of 'counter maternities', politically resistant performances that engage essentialist identities. While resituating motherhood as a role not always tied to biological gender, McDaniel employs a methodology informed by cultural, gender, and theatre studies and considers how the construction of mothering as universally women's work obscures additional, marginalizing identities based in race and class.