Skip to main content
eScholarship
Open Access Publications from the University of California

UC Santa Cruz

UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations bannerUC Santa Cruz

Three Ramayanas on the West Coast of the United States: Cross-Cultural Adaptation in American Theatre

Creative Commons 'BY-ND' version 4.0 license
Abstract

The United States of America built its diverse culture upon Benjamin’s “triumphal procession” and sustained is apathetic views towards its diversity with Gómez-Peña’s Culti-multuralism. As a result of globalization cross-cultural adaptations have become increasingly popular in American theatres. American theatre artists should produce more cross-cultural adaptations of culturally unfamiliar texts— texts to which most Americans have not been exposed. If American theatre artists perform such texts with thorough research, respect, and humility, they can inform the American population about the various non-white cultures that make up the nation’s diverse population. If American theatre artists do not perform such texts with research, respect and humility, serious misunderstandings will occur. I examined three United States productions of Ramayana and concluded that cross-cultural adaptations of culturally unfamiliar texts have a profound pedagogical and sociological impact.

Main Content
For improved accessibility of PDF content, download the file to your device.
Current View