Misconceptions Crumble: The Potential of Native-Controlled Theatre to Deconstruct Non-Native Americans' Perceptions of Native Peoples in the United States
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Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK
2009
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1240582844 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-bgsu12405828442021-08-03T05:28:55Z Misconceptions Crumble: The Potential of Native-Controlled Theatre to Deconstruct Non-Native Americans' Perceptions of Native Peoples in the United States Cooperkline, Kristen J. American Studies Native Americans Native Studies Theater Native American theatre stereotypes national identity <p>This study seeks to determine if Native-controlled theatre could provide an opportunity for non-Natives to move past their understanding of Native Americans as static figures of the past and embrace members of Native American communities as individual, complex people. While Native-controlled theatre must first and foremost serve Native peoples, it also has the potential to help non-Natives recognize and learn from their possible misconceptions. I explore this possibility primarily through play analysis in three chapters. In chapter 1, I create a foundation for the ideology behind many non-Native Americans' need to utilize Native American stereotypes in order to reaffirm a national identity based on a frontier utopia. I then apply the discourse to play texts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to establish that non-Natives still use theatre and Native characters to reaffirm a national identity. In chapter 2, I provide a general political history of Native Americans in the twentieth century in order to argue that Native-controlled theatre not only is a political act, but that Native characters serve a very different purpose for Native peoples than they do for non-Natives. Finally, in chapter 3, I argue that despite Native and non-Native Americans need to use Native characters and stories to fulfill different purposes, Native-controlled theatre can be used to teach non-Native audience members about contemporary Native lives. I apply Mary Louise Pratt's concept of a contact zone to two Native-written plays and found that the result could be that non-Natives learn about and from their misconceptions about Native Americans. Although the purposes behind theatrical practices continue to be some of the many factors that keep many Natives and non-Natives in direct conflict with one another, Native-controlled theatre has the ability to allow non-Natives to actually engage with and learn from Native peoples about Native lives today.</p> 2009-05-13 English text Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1240582844 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1240582844 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
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NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
American Studies Native Americans Native Studies Theater Native American theatre stereotypes national identity |
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American Studies Native Americans Native Studies Theater Native American theatre stereotypes national identity Cooperkline, Kristen J. Misconceptions Crumble: The Potential of Native-Controlled Theatre to Deconstruct Non-Native Americans' Perceptions of Native Peoples in the United States |
| author |
Cooperkline, Kristen J. |
| author_facet |
Cooperkline, Kristen J. |
| author_sort |
Cooperkline, Kristen J. |
| title |
Misconceptions Crumble: The Potential of Native-Controlled Theatre to Deconstruct Non-Native Americans' Perceptions of Native Peoples in the United States |
| title_short |
Misconceptions Crumble: The Potential of Native-Controlled Theatre to Deconstruct Non-Native Americans' Perceptions of Native Peoples in the United States |
| title_full |
Misconceptions Crumble: The Potential of Native-Controlled Theatre to Deconstruct Non-Native Americans' Perceptions of Native Peoples in the United States |
| title_fullStr |
Misconceptions Crumble: The Potential of Native-Controlled Theatre to Deconstruct Non-Native Americans' Perceptions of Native Peoples in the United States |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Misconceptions Crumble: The Potential of Native-Controlled Theatre to Deconstruct Non-Native Americans' Perceptions of Native Peoples in the United States |
| title_sort |
misconceptions crumble: the potential of native-controlled theatre to deconstruct non-native americans' perceptions of native peoples in the united states |
| publisher |
Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2009 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1240582844 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT cooperklinekristenj misconceptionscrumblethepotentialofnativecontrolledtheatretodeconstructnonnativeamericansperceptionsofnativepeoplesintheunitedstates |
| _version_ |
1719420685237878784 |