Printed Voices: Women, Print, and Performance

Abstract

This thesis suggests the limitations of the term ‘closet drama’ when applied to marginalized playwrights from the early modern and modern periods. Using four case studies, two British playwrights from the early modern period, Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639) and Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), and two Americans from the modern period, Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) and Marita Bonner (1898-1971), I argue that these dramatists used printed play-texts to subvert social restrictions relating to gender, sexuality, class, and race, access new spaces, and reframe and confront traditional narratives. Each of my case studies examines how print served a specific performative and political purpose for individual playwrights in specific socio-historical contexts. My aim is to highlight closet drama’s cultural significance as an alternative method of artistic engagement and encourage canonical acknowledgement of unconventional dramatic work.