Unmaking Masculine Determinacy : A Postmodern Challenge in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus

Authors

• Usa Padgate

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

Venus, a play written by Suzan-Lori Parks, employs unconventional theatrical approaches in retelling the history of a 19th-century freak show attraction. This study examines how the critique of gender bias and sexual manipulations in Venus is explored and projected in ways that can be described as postmodern. Through the subversion of conventional forms and language, the blending of fact and fiction, the pastiches of both low and high generic and linguistic presentations, the liberating of a marginalized voice, and the revision of the philosophical premises that subordinate the female to the male order, the play questions the masculine determinacy inherent in social institutions and traditions and invites a conscious reconsideration of default meaning and truth.

DOI

10.1163/26659077-02401007

First Page

164

Last Page

183

Recommended Citation

Padgate, Usa (2021) "Unmaking Masculine Determinacy : A Postmodern Challenge in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus," Manusya, Journal of Humanities: Vol. 24: No. 1, Article 11.
DOI: 10.1163/26659077-02401007
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/manusya/vol24/iss1/11