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Self and space in the theater of Susan Glaspell

"This study examines the means Glaspell employs to engage her characters in proxemical and verbal dialectics with the forces of place that turn them into victims of location. Of particular interest are her characters' attempts to escape the influence of territoriality and shape identities of their own"--Provided by publisher.Founding member of the Provincetown Players, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, best-selling novelist and short story writer Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) was a great contributor to American literature. An exploration of eleven plays written between the years 1915 and 1943, this critical study focuses on one of Glaspell's central themes, the interplay between place and identity. This study examines the means Glaspell employs to engage her characters in proxemical and verbal dialectics with the forces of place that turn them into victims of location. Of particular interest are her characters' attempts to escape the influence of territoriality and shape identities of their own.

Trifles

On Susan Glaspell's Trifles and "A jury of her peers" : centennial essays, interviews and adaptations

"On a wharf in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1916, Susan Glaspell was inspired by the sensational murder trial she had covered as a young reporter to write Trifles. Following successful productions of the play, Glaspell became the mother of American drama"--On a wharf in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Greenwich Village bohemians gathered in the summer of 1916, Susan Glaspell was inspired by the sensational murder trial she had covered as a young reporter to write Trifles, a play about two women who discover and hide a Midwestern farm wife's motive for murdering her abusive husband. Following successful productions of the play, Glaspell - already a well received fiction writer - became the mother of American drama. Her short story version of Trifles, "A Jury of Her Peers, " reached an unprecedented one million readers in 1917. The play and the story have since been anthologized and taught in classrooms across America and Trifles is regularly revived on stages around the world. This collection of fresh essays celebrates the centennial of Trifles and "A Jury of Her Peers, " with departures from established Glaspell scholarship. Interviews with theater practitioners are included along with two original creative works inspired by Glaspell's iconic writings.