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Query: faculty: "FGw" and publication year: "2010"

AuthorJenna Rodgers
TitleShaping the discourse of Canadian multiculturalism in the theatre. An analysis of works by Chinese Canadian playwrights
SupervisorsS. Bala, H. Korsberg
Year2010
Pages98
FacultyFaculty of Humanities
ProgrammeFGw MA Theaterwetenschap
KeywordsMulticulturalism; Interculturalism; Hybridity; Canada; Chinese Canadian
AbstractIf multiculturalism is an ever-changing word in the scheme of Canadian cultural politics, than theatre can assist us in understanding certain dimensions of its manipulation and significance to new and creative cultural production. This study critically analyzes five plays by Chinese Canadian playwrights to explore different aspects of what it means to be an Asian Canadian. Using theories surrouding the performance history, space, body and translation, this study dicusses Mother Tonque (1995) by Betty Quan, Mom, Dad, I'm Living With a White Girl (1995) by Marty Chan, Surface Tension (2001) by Elyne Quan, paper SERIES (2007) by David Yee, and China Doll (2001) by Marjorie Chan. The questions central to this study include : How do Chinese Canadian playwrights handle and challenge multicultural policy? Is the developing field of Asian Canadian theatre best understood through the concept of multiculturalism?; In how far can multiculturalism be manipulated and constructed through the work of Chinese Canadian playwrights?; and how does performance affect the process and policy of multiculturalism? The study begins with a chapter dedicated to understanding the policy and history of multiculturalism in Canada, outlining its development and relation to the Asian Canadian theatre scene. Setting up a critical understanding of the word multiculturalism, this chapter addresses multiculturalism's idealization by the Canadian goverment and the critical dilemmas that Chinese Canadian playwrights face in writing plays of a multicultural nature. The following chapter addresses how Chinese Canadian playwrights use their text to manipulate performance space to enable a critical commentary on the state of multiculturalism. Applying Una Chaudhuri's notion of geopathology to multicultural theatre, this chapter addresses how a playwright can manipulate performance space through their text to comment on and challenge multicultural policy. The third chapter is a discussion regarding the multicultural body on stage. Dealing with questions of the phenomenological experience of the physical body passing between cultures, this chapter's analysis focuses on how the Chinese Canadian playwrights wordks to manipulate the experiences of both the performer and the audience members. The last chapter focuses on communication through cultural hybridity and translation. Acknowledging the playwrights as occupying a culturally hybrid position, this chapter deals with questions of a playwrights' responsibility in cultural translation, and the careful work necessary to communicate in a multicultural environment. In a country such as Canada, wich has made multiculturalism an official policy-a country that has always had a high level of immigration and been friendly (at least on the surface) to minority populations-there is a striking lack of multicultural theatre. In analyzing the aforementioned works by Chinese Canadian playwrights, this study seeks out how playwrights synthesize their position as culturally hybrid and share it within a multicultural country.
LanguageEngels
NoteScriptie onder embargo tot en met 4 augustus 2011.
Document type scriptie master
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