Performative Subjecthoods: Lesbian Representations in Split Britches' 'Belle Reprieve'

Authors

  • Inmaculada Benítez Olivar University of Cádiz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12795/REN.2021.i25.03

Keywords:

Split Britches, gender, sexuality, American Theater, lesbianism, Feminism, Lesbian representations, Queer, Heteropatriarchy, Belle Reprieve

Abstract

Emerging postmodern theories of gender and sexuality frame the terms in which society has understood these concepts in an evolutionary way throughout history. The last century has witnessed the radical changes carried out mainly by feminist and LGTB movements. On the other hand, the theater, a subversive space where it is possible to experiment with different forms of subjecthood and communication, has been the laboratory in which it has been tried to give a plastic form to these new currents of thought. In this sense, the work of Split Britches is remarkable for the innovative ways of bringing the abject to the political forefront. From the lesbian body to drag representation, Belle Reprieve (1991) is developed under the queer premise, to dismantle heteropatriarchal hegemony and the binary gender system.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Inmaculada Benítez Olivar, University of Cádiz

English Philology

References

AUSTIN, J. L. How To Do Things With Words. 1962. Harvard University Press, 1975.

BEAUVOIR, Simone de. Second Sex. Vintage Books, 1991.

BOTTOMS, Stephen J. Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement. The University of Michigan Press, 2009.

BUTLER, Judith. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. Routledge, 1993.

---. Excitable Speech. A Politics of the Performative. Routledge, 1997.

---. Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1999.

---. Undoing Gender. Routledge, 2004.

CASE, Sue-Ellen. Feminist and Queer Performance: Critical Strategies. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

---. Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance. Routledge, 1996.

ESTEBAN MUÑOZ, José. Disidentifications: queers of color and the performance of politics. University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

FORTE, Jeanie. “Women’s Performance Art: Feminism and Postmodernism”. Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre, edited by Sue-Ellen Case. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, pp. 251-269.

HALBERSTAM, Jack. Female Masculinity. Duke University Press, 2018.

HUTCHEON, Linda. A Theory of Parody. The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms. University of Illinois Press, 2000.

JAMESON, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press, 2012.

KUSHNER, Tony. “Notes about Political Theater.” The Kenyion Review, vol. 19, no. 3/4 (Summer – Autumn), 1997, pp. 19-34.

LACAN, Jacques. Écrits. A selection. Routledge, 2001.

NEWTON, Esther. Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. University of Chicago Press, 1979.

SALIH, Sara. Judith Butler. Routledge, 2002.

SOLOMON, Alisa. Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender. 1998. Routledge, 2005.

WITTIG, Monique. The Straight Mind and Other Essays. Beacon Press, 2002.

Downloads

Published

2021-03-05

How to Cite

Olivar, I. B. “Performative Subjecthoods: Lesbian Representations in Split Britches’ ’Belle Reprieve’”. Revista De Estudios Norteamericanos, vol. 25, Mar. 2021, doi:10.12795/REN.2021.i25.03.

Issue

Section

Articles
Received 2020-06-28
Accepted 2021-02-14
Published 2021-03-05
Views
  • Abstract 332
  • pdf 179