Adrienne Kennedy’s autobiographical theatre : a semiotic analysis, a didactic proposal and a translation of her play

Abstract

This doctoral thesis presents both a deep study on the life and work of the Afro-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy and a deep semiotic analysis of the autobiography contained in her plays as the basis for a universal and flexible didactic proposal based on biography and an annotated authorized translation of the fifteen most relevant Adrienne Kennedy’s plays. The initial objective of this doctoral thesis is to present the author and her plays as a tool for different educational curriculums to educate in values, race, gender, and to fight social inequalities. In this sense, the investigation presented is rooted in the belief that the whole set of Adrienne Kennedy’s work can be considered as autobiographical theatre as her plays show traces of the main elements of autobiography such as retrospection, autobiographical memory and other essential elements contained historically in the studies of autobiography. Furthermore, these lines provide a methodological innovation based on collaborative work, cultural competence implementation and development, and the fact of activism as a way to offer an answer to the still open situation of violation of human rights and violence in the world and, finally, a way to solve discrimination and refusal. Throughout a critical selection of 100 texts from Kennedy’s plays, the purpose is to work autobiographical techniques, useful and strong enough to change the individual and, by extension, societies. In this sense, the thesis, bilingual in its essence, introduces resources for schools and the academic world and keys to understand the author from a different perspective. At the same time, it uses activist theatre in the classroom to create critical thinkers and to offer a comprehensive educational proposal based on autobiographical theatre and restores translation as a tool for classroom. In this line, the originality of our dissertation lies on the selection of author and plays, the use of autobiographical theatre as an essential element to fight inequalities and abuse, the study of semiotics of autobiography applied to drama, and the universality and adaptability to national and international curriculums including the possible educative applications the plays could have in the different programs proposed and by extension to other programs. Finally, the first Spanish translation of Adrianne Kennedy’s plays offered to the academic community and a didactic proposal based on theatricative techniques where autobiography is the core and the approach to equal gender, race, and equal social opportunities in education is the final objective. After all this work we can affirm that there is a way to present Adrienne Kennedy’s plays as autobiographical as a set despite her techniques. In addition, we will conclude that her works, and plays can be implemented in an educational project based on theatre and autobiography and the fight for rights, race, identity, and gender for the 21st century.