A Land of Despair and Change: Landscapes of Wealth and Poverty in Selected Plays of Naomi Wallace

Abstract

ABSTRACT: “A Land of Despair and Change: Landscapes of Wealth and Poverty in Selected Plays of Naomi Wallace” examines Wallace’s use of a utopian dramaturgy to articulate the desire for a better future throughout her plays. The plays I examine are The War Boys, Slaughter City, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, and Things of Dry Hours. While the despair and poverty of body and spirit in Wallace’s plays has received critical attention, I argue in my essay that Wallace’s plays also contain a utopian spirit of change and hope that has not been critically examined. It is the passion and intensity, even romanticism, of this hope that negates the dreariness of the mundane and everyday and leads to fi nal scenes of salvation in Wallace’s plays. By illuminating these moments of utopic romanticism, Wallace reveals political and social possibilities for change.

RESUMEN: “A Land of Despair and Change: Landscapes of Wealth and Poverty in Selected Plays of Naomi Wallace” analiza el empleo de Wallace de una dramaturgia utópica para articular el deseo de un futuro mejor en toda su obra. Las obras que estudio son The War Boys, Slaughter City, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, y Things of Dry Hours. Aunque la desesperación y la pobreza de cuerpo y espíritu en las obras de Wallace ha recibido atención crítica, en mi ensayo argumento que las obras de Wallace también contienen un espíritu utópico de cambio y esperanza que no ha sido analizado por la crítica. Es la pasión y la intensidad, incluso el romanticismo, de esta esperanza lo que niega el carácter lóbrego de lo mundano y lo cotidiano, y lleva a escenas fi nales de salvación en las obras de Wallace. Al iluminar estos momentos de romanticismo utópico, Wallace revela posibilidades de cambio políticas y sociales.