Unfinished Business: Reconfiguring History in Suzan-Lori Parks's "The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World"

Rayner, Alice; Elam, Harry J.

doi:10.2307/3209069

Cited by 20 publications

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“…As I have already discussed, the play oscillates between past, present, and future, implying that the recurrent deaths and miseries of Black Man did not end in the past but continue to the present and also may continue in the future if African Americans persist in their stagnancy and passivity. Therefore, Rayner and Elam's view that “The death of every black man in the past inhabits the death of each black man in the present in the sense that history is lived as a present” holds true (Rayner & Elam , 451). In this play, Parks repeatedly explores case histories of violent deaths cast on Black Man.…”

Section: Postmortem and Magical Realismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…She is profoundly haunted by the repeated deaths and reappearances of her husband. Black Man With Watermelon, however, has truly died but has not come to rest as he still has unfinished business (Rayner & Elam , 449). He repeatedly reappears to his wife so that she cannot help remembering him, and urges her to write down his story.…”

Section: Postmortem and Magical Realismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sleep, Death's Twin Brother

Ghasemi

2015

Orbis Litterarum

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In this essay, I approach Suzan‐Lori Parks's The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World from the perspective of postmodern drama so as to explore a number of key preoccupations of postmodern aesthetics in this play. I argue how the creation of indeterminacy enables Parks to develop an indeterminate representation of history and exercise the African Americans' resistance against the hierarchies of power. In addition, I argue that the use of postmodern aesthetics helps the playwright to create a postmortem state so as to proffer alternative perspectives, which can resist and eventually break the monophony and monopoly of the dominant discourse. I finally show how the employment of the theories of postmodern drama helps Parks to represent a typical image of a media‐saturated society and to direct and throw her energies into undermining a number of dominant metanarratives, ill‐propaganda, and negative stereotypes, which have been created by media and have afflicted African Americans in their personal and social lives. It is worth noting that the focus of my analysis is on the terrains that reflect the playwright's quest for identities for African Americans.

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Section: Postmortem and Magical Realismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Postmortem and Magical Realismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep, Death's Twin Brother

Ghasemi

2015

Orbis Litterarum

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“…Suzan-Lori Parks's 1990 play, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, has garnered critical acclaim, acknowledged even as a play with "astonishing power" (Kelly 1992) to decline the stereotypes (Geis 2008) and to reconfigure history (Rayner & Elam, Jr. 1994). Critics have also acclaimed the astonishing power of the play due to its "musicality of language" (Bernard 1997) and its "body language" (Louis 2001) as well as the richness of its poetic language (Solomon 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Challenges of Involving Local Communities Especially Women’s Groups in Rebuilding Society

Inioluwa¹

2018

IJGWS

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I approach Suzan-Lori Parks's play The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World from the perspectives of womanism. I show how Parks deemphasizes the male|female dichotomy in order to create a convincing portrayal of African American women who can function as discursive and trustworthy partners for their men in the movement. I also argue that this approach helps the playwright to show how the trust of African American men in their women and their cooperation can help them build a strong nation together and transcend their race. To this end, I will draw upon a range of theories of womanism to briefly discuss the controversies surrounding the definition of womanism and show how the play under study to a large extent coheres to one of the propositions that Alice Walker has provided of womanism to utter the concerns of African American women and at the same time foster reconciliation, unity and solidarity between them and their men.

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Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance

Worthen

2003

128

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Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance asks a central theoretical question in the study of drama: what is the relationship between the dramatic text and the meanings of performance? Developing the notion of 'performativity' explored by J. L. Austin, Judith Butler, and others, Worthen argues that the text cannot govern the force of its performance. Instead the text becomes significant only as embodied in the changing conventions of its performance. Worthen explores this understanding of dramatic performativity by interrogating several contemporary sites of Shakespeare production. He analyses how Shakespeare is recreated in historical performance, exemplified by the Globe Theatre on Bankside; by international and intercultural performance; by film; and by the appearance of Shakespeare on the Internet. The book includes detailed discussions of recent film and stage productions, and sets Shakespeare performance alongside other works of contemporary drama and theatre.

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Unfinished Business: Reconfiguring History in Suzan-Lori Parks's "The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World"

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

Sleep, Death's Twin Brother

Sleep, Death's Twin Brother

The Challenges of Involving Local Communities Especially Women’s Groups in Rebuilding Society

Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance

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