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Author ORCID Identifier
N/A
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Communication
Year Degree Awarded
2018
Month Degree Awarded
May
First Advisor
Leda Cooks
Second Advisor
Anne Ciecko
Third Advisor
Priscilla Page
Subject Categories
Film and Media Studies | Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication | Performance Studies
Abstract
Brooklyn Bedroom is a performance that interrogates societal perceptions of race and sexuality. I have utilized the writing of the performance as my method; the performance is an act of Third World feminist resistance and liberation. Storytelling is the type of research preferred by many black female playwrights. A type of qualitative inquiry, ethnodramatic work forms a bridge between individual stories and social issues affecting society with the goal of socio-political change. The source of reality for this ethnodrama is the Rose family, their history was a catalyst for the writing of Brooklyn Bedroom. I have explored their stories to investigate the relationships between women, sexuality, desire and healing. This ethnodrama integrates elements of both screen and stage and it is a performance which resists hegemonic representations of sexuality (see video of live performance). This narrative carves spaces for women who have experienced trauma to move beyond pain. The play and its rationale are theoretically rooted in Third World feminism and performance ethnography, including research from the likes of Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, Norman Denzin, bell hooks, Jonny Saldana, and D. Soyini Madison, and the creative cultural production of Julie Dash, the women filmmakers of Filming Desire: A Journey Through Women's Cinema (here-in-after Filming Desire), Lynn Nottage, Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Zeinabu Irene Davis, Trinh Minh-ha, and Hye Jung Park.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/11923472.0
Recommended Citation
Stephenson, Ayshia, "Brooklyn Bedroom: An Ethnodrama on Female Sexuality, Third World Feminism and Performance Ethnography" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 1293.
https://doi.org/10.7275/11923472.0
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1293
Dissertation
Included in
Film and Media Studies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Performance Studies Commons