ABSTRACT

This collection of ten original (and one reprinted) essays provides an in-depth examination of one of America's foremost contemporary playwrights. Established critics as well as younger scholars examine well-known works such as Getting Out, 'night, Mother, The Laundromat, and the adaptation of The Secret Garden. Lesser known plays such as The Holdup, Sarah and Abraham, Traveler in the Dark, and Loving Daniel Boone are also discussed. This casebook includes an interview with Norman commenting on her work and her place in American theater as well as a review of 'night, Mother by drama critic Robert Brustein. The essays analyze Norman's works in comparison to the works of other playwrights and examine the mother/daughter relationships of the characters as well as Norman's sense of a woman's place within a patriarchal culture.

chapter |23 pages

The Impossibility of Getting Out

The Psychopolitics of the Family in Marsha Norman's Getting Out

chapter |20 pages

At the Intersection

Configuring Women's Differences through Narrative in Norman's Third and Oak: The Laundromat

chapter |16 pages

Revolving It All

Mother-Daughter Pairs in Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother and Samuel Beckett's Footfalls

chapter |23 pages

A Place at the Table

Hunger as Metaphor in Lillian Hellman's Days to Come and Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother

chapter |8 pages

“And the Time for It Was Gone”

Jessie's Triumph in 'night, Mother

chapter |13 pages

“I Don't Know What's Going to Happen in the Morning”

Visions of the Past, Present, and Future in The Holdup

chapter |12 pages

The “Other Funeral”

Narcissism and Symbolic Substitution in Marsha Norman's Traveler in the Dark

chapter |12 pages

Marsha Norman's Sarah and Abraham

“The Moon Is Teaching Bible”

chapter |12 pages

“This Haunted Girl”

Marsha Norman's Adaptation of The Secret Garden

chapter |4 pages

Don't Read This Review!

'night, Mother by Marsha Norman *