Gender and Politics
Abstract
For exploring the idea of gender and politics in her dramaturgy I have selected plays "Top Girls" (1982), "Cloud Nine" (1979), and "Blue Heart" (1997). Caryl Churchill brilliantly initiated a theatre practice which is based on feminist reading of theories of Bertolt Brecht and radical experimentation. Brecht underlined the role that theatre could play for offering possibilities and generating political consciousness which in turn will lead to social change. He has laid substantial emphasis on constructing in drama a socialist paradigm; a paradigm that evokes the revolutionary idea that a given state of affairs can be altered, if willed. Brecht’s three concepts: Alienation effect, historicization, and the gestus when applied to feminist school of understanding, illuminate the reflection of gender in contemporary society.