Almost "Better to Be Nobody": Feminist Subjectivity, the Thatcher Years, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Grace of Mary Traverse
As a preface to The Grace of Mary Traverse, Timberlake Wertenbaker includes a quotation from George Steiner's In Bluebeard's Castle stating that although the "definition of culture in the age of the gas-oven, of the arctic camps, of napalm ... may belong solely to the past history of...
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University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
1996
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/md.39.3.404 https://moderndrama.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/md.39.3.404 |
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crunivtoronpr:10.3138/md.39.3.404 2023-12-31T10:04:04+01:00 Almost "Better to Be Nobody": Feminist Subjectivity, the Thatcher Years, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Grace of Mary Traverse Ritchie, Martha 1996 http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/md.39.3.404 https://moderndrama.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/md.39.3.404 en eng University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) Modern Drama volume 39, issue 3, page 404-420 ISSN 0026-7694 1712-5286 Literature and Literary Theory journal-article 1996 crunivtoronpr https://doi.org/10.3138/md.39.3.404 2023-12-01T08:18:05Z As a preface to The Grace of Mary Traverse, Timberlake Wertenbaker includes a quotation from George Steiner's In Bluebeard's Castle stating that although the "definition of culture in the age of the gas-oven, of the arctic camps, of napalm ... may belong solely to the past history of hope ... [w]e must keep in focus its hideous novelty or renovation," Written during Wertenbaker's 1985 stint as resident writer at London's Royal Court Theatre, The Grace of Mary Traverse focuses on culture through the young, well-bred Mary and her quest for knowledge and experience in late-eighteenth-century London. However, Wertenbaker cautions in an author's note that Mary Traverse is not a historical play and that the eighteenth-century setting is a metaphor for contemporary times. Of the contemporary issues Wertenbaker's work addresses, feminist themes often stand out. In fact, along with Mmy Traverse, plays such as Case to Answer (1980), New Anatomies (1981), Inside Out (1982), and The Love of the Nightingale (1988) feature female characters whose articulation of sexual desire, resistance to patriarchy, and/or transgression of conventional gender boundaries demonstrate this playwright's interest in staging feminist subjectivities. Wertenbaker's concern with the "definition of culture" in The Grace of Mary Traverse strongly links this play's feminist subjectivities to British culture and politics in 1985. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic University of Toronto Press (U Toronto Press - via Crossref) Modern Drama 39 3 404 420 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Toronto Press (U Toronto Press - via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crunivtoronpr |
language |
English |
topic |
Literature and Literary Theory |
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Literature and Literary Theory Ritchie, Martha Almost "Better to Be Nobody": Feminist Subjectivity, the Thatcher Years, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Grace of Mary Traverse |
topic_facet |
Literature and Literary Theory |
description |
As a preface to The Grace of Mary Traverse, Timberlake Wertenbaker includes a quotation from George Steiner's In Bluebeard's Castle stating that although the "definition of culture in the age of the gas-oven, of the arctic camps, of napalm ... may belong solely to the past history of hope ... [w]e must keep in focus its hideous novelty or renovation," Written during Wertenbaker's 1985 stint as resident writer at London's Royal Court Theatre, The Grace of Mary Traverse focuses on culture through the young, well-bred Mary and her quest for knowledge and experience in late-eighteenth-century London. However, Wertenbaker cautions in an author's note that Mary Traverse is not a historical play and that the eighteenth-century setting is a metaphor for contemporary times. Of the contemporary issues Wertenbaker's work addresses, feminist themes often stand out. In fact, along with Mmy Traverse, plays such as Case to Answer (1980), New Anatomies (1981), Inside Out (1982), and The Love of the Nightingale (1988) feature female characters whose articulation of sexual desire, resistance to patriarchy, and/or transgression of conventional gender boundaries demonstrate this playwright's interest in staging feminist subjectivities. Wertenbaker's concern with the "definition of culture" in The Grace of Mary Traverse strongly links this play's feminist subjectivities to British culture and politics in 1985. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ritchie, Martha |
author_facet |
Ritchie, Martha |
author_sort |
Ritchie, Martha |
title |
Almost "Better to Be Nobody": Feminist Subjectivity, the Thatcher Years, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Grace of Mary Traverse |
title_short |
Almost "Better to Be Nobody": Feminist Subjectivity, the Thatcher Years, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Grace of Mary Traverse |
title_full |
Almost "Better to Be Nobody": Feminist Subjectivity, the Thatcher Years, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Grace of Mary Traverse |
title_fullStr |
Almost "Better to Be Nobody": Feminist Subjectivity, the Thatcher Years, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Grace of Mary Traverse |
title_full_unstemmed |
Almost "Better to Be Nobody": Feminist Subjectivity, the Thatcher Years, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Grace of Mary Traverse |
title_sort |
almost "better to be nobody": feminist subjectivity, the thatcher years, and timberlake wertenbaker's the grace of mary traverse |
publisher |
University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) |
publishDate |
1996 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/md.39.3.404 https://moderndrama.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/md.39.3.404 |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Modern Drama volume 39, issue 3, page 404-420 ISSN 0026-7694 1712-5286 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3138/md.39.3.404 |
container_title |
Modern Drama |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
404 |
op_container_end_page |
420 |
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1786829002895261696 |