Modern Drama By Women 1880s-1930s: An International Anthology

390 Pages·1996·2.28 MB·English

by  K. Kelly

Modern Drama by Women 1880s–1930s
Modern Drama by Women 1880s–1930s offers the first direct evidence that
women playwrights helped create the movement known as “modern drama”.
It contains twelve plays by women from the Americas, Europe and Asia,
spanning a national and stylistic range from Swedish realism to Russian
symbolism. Six of these plays are appearing in their first English-language
translation.
Playwrights include:
• Anne Charlotte Leffler Edgren (Sweden)
• Amelia Rosselli (Italy)
• Elsa Bernstein (Germany)
• Elizabeth Robins (Britain)
• Marie Lenéru (France)
• Alfonsina Storni (Argentina)
• Hella Wuolijoki (Finland)
• Hasegawa Shiguré (Japan)
• Rachilde (France)
• Zinaida Gippius (Russia)
• Djuna Barnes (USA)
• Marita Bonner (USA)
This groundbreaking anthology challenges the traditional canon. In these plays,
the New Woman represents herself and her crises in all of the styles and genres
available to the modern dramatist. Unprecedented in diversity and scope, it is a
collection which no scholar, student or lover of modern drama can afford to
miss.
Katherine E.Kelly, an Associate Professor of English at Texas A&M
University, has written on G.B.Shaw and the Women’s Suffrage movement, the
Women’s Theatre of 1913–18, and the plays of Tom Stoppard. She is currently
working on a study of the Actresses’ Franchise League, 1908–18.
Modern Drama by Women
1880s–1930s
An international anthology
Edited by Katherine E.Kelly
London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an International Thomson Publishing Company IP
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
This collection and Introduction © 1996 Katherine E.Kelly;
individual play translations and introductions © individual
contributors
The Crystal Spider by Rachilde © Edith Silve.
The Dove by Djuna Barnes © The Authors League Fund,
New York, as literary executor of the Estate of Djuna Barnes.
The Purple Flower by Marita Bonner © The Crisis.
Votes for Women by Elizabeth Robins © Mabel Smith.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be printed or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Modern Drama by Women 1880s–1930s: An international anthology/edited
by Katherine E.Kelly.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Drama—Women authors. I. Kelly, Katherine E.
PN6119.8.M63 1996
808.820′ 082–dc20 95–31553
ISBN 0-203-43258-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-74082-3 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-12493-X (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-12494-8 (pbk)
This anthology is dedicated
to women’s friendship and women’s work
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction: The Making of Modern Drama 1
Katherine E.Kelly
REALISMS
1 Anne Charlotte Leffler Edgren True Women (Sweden) 23
Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey
2 Amelia Rosselli Her Soul (Italy) 54
Natalia Costa-ZalessowJoan Borrelli
3 Elsa Bernstein (Ernst Rosmer) Maria Arndt (Germany) 94
Susanne T.Kord
4 Elizabeth Robins Votes for Women (England) 127
Joanne E.Gates
5 Marie Lenéru Woman Triumphant (France) 171
Melanie C.Hawthorne
6 Alfonsina Storni The Master of the World (Argentina) 212
Evelia Romano Thuesen
DEPARTURES
7 Hella Wuolijoki Hulda Juurakko (Finland) 247
Ritva PoomPirkko Koski
8 Hasegawa Shiguré Wavering Traces (Japan) 293
Carole Cavanaugh
9 Rachilde (Marguerite Eymery) The Crystal Spider (France) 312
Kiki GounaridouFrazer LivelyFrazer Lively
10 Zinaida Gippius Sacred Blood (Russia) 324
Mary F.ZirinCatherine SchulerCatherine Schuler
vi
11 Djuna Barnes The Dove (U.S.A.) 350
Cheryl J.Plumb
12 Marita Bonner The Purple Flower (U.S.A.) 363
Esther Beth Sullivan
Notes on translators and contributors 377
Illustrations
1 Anne Charlotte Leffler Edgren 24
2 Production photograph from True Women 50
3 Amelia Rosselli 55
4 Drawing of Elsa Bernstein 95
5 Elizabeth Robins 128
6 Marie Lenéru 172
7 Alfonsina Storni 213
8 Hella Wuolijoki with Bertolt Brecht 248
9 Production photograph from Hulda Juurakko 261
10 Hasegawa Shiguré 294
11 Plan of a present-day Kabuki stage 301
12 Rachilde (Marguerite Eymery) 313
13 Watercolour and photograph of Zinaida Gippius 324
14 Djuna Barnes 351
15 Marita Bonner 364
Acknowledgments
This anthology would not have been possible without the cooperation of
archives, agents, and literary estates in Europe and the United States. We would
like to thank the following institutions for access to their collections, for
permission to reproduce photographs and to quote from manuscripts, and for
other assistance: the Archive and Library of the Royal (Swedish) Dramatic
Theatre, the Drottningholm Theatre Museum (Sweden), and the Royal Library
(Sweden), for assistance with research on Ann Charlotte Leffler Edgren; the
Finnish Literature Information Centre for subsidizing the translation costs for
Juurakkon Hulda; New York University’s Fales Library, “Elizabeth Robins
Collection,” for access to manuscripts and photographs of Elizabeth Robins; and
Special Collections, McKeldin Library, University of Maryland, for the
photograph of Djuna Barnes.
While we have made every effort to contact copyright holders, we wish to
apologize to any we may have missed. The following individuals and publishers
have greatly helped our efforts to return these playrights to print. We wish to
thank: Aldo Rosselli, grandson of Amelia Rosselli, for permission to reproduce
the photograph of the author and to publish the translation of Her Soul; Author’s
League Fund, 234 West 44th Street, New York, New York, as literary executors
of the Estate of Djuna Barnes for permission to publish The Dove; Mats Bäcker
for permission to reproduce his production photograph of Ann Charlotte Leffler
Edgren’s True Women; The Crisis, the official publication of the NAACP, for
permission to reprint the photograph of Marita Bonner and the text of The Purple
Flower; The Fonds Doucet and the Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal for newsclippings
related to Rachilde; La Nación, the Argentine newspaper, for providing reviews
of Alfonsina Storni’s Master of the World; Edith Silve for permission to publish
Rachilde’s The Crystal Spider and to reproduce the photograph of Rachilde;
Mabel Smith, Literary Executor of the Elizabeth Robins Papers, for permission
to publish the text of Votes for Women; Alejandro Storni, for assistance and
information about the author, and the photograph of Alfonsina Storni; Mrs.
Vappu Tuomioja and the Finnish Dramatists’ Union for permission to translate
and publish Hella Wuolijoki’s Juurakkon Hulda, and to reproduce the
photograph of Wuolijoki and Brecht; and Yamamoto Yukino of Fuji Shuppan
publishers for permission to translate from the Japanese language text of
ix
Hasegawa Shigure’s Wavering Traces. Hasegawa Massaru kindly provided the
photograph of Hasegawa Shiguré.
The general editor would like to thank all of those who offered ideas and
encouragement during the assembling of this anthology. Of the many scholars
and theater professionals who helped, I especially thank the following, with
apologies to any whose names I have omitted: Doris Abramson, Janet Benton,
Viv Gardner, Melanie C.Hawthorne, The International Center for Women
Playwrights, Tess Onwueme, Susan Pfisterer-Smith, Jenny Spencer, Sheila
Stowell, Sue Thomas and Carla Waal. Jo Herbert offered invaluable assistance
with correspondence related to this anthology, and Charles Snodgrass collected
important evidence about the beginnings of modern drama. The support of Texas
A&M University’s College of Liberal Arts and English Department head,
J.Lawrence Mitchell, helped ensure that this collection would be a full and
representative sample of-international plays by women. Finally, Talia Rodgers of
Routledge showed humor, patience, and— above all—vision as she encouraged
the evolution of this volume over months of development.