UC Irvine

This dissertation explores the question, “What political, social, and cultural realities influenced the representation of women in American popular dramaturgy from the post-Revolutionary through the antebellum periods?” Drawing on the theories of Silvan Tompkins, Michel Foucault, and Lauren Berlant, among others, I theorize the extent to which affects of distress (the embodied experience of anxiety) inform some of the most frequently reprised tropes of theatrical femininity in the nineteenth century. I argue that racialized tropes of imperiled femininity in the United States’ early plays reflected, and acted as an outlet for, the social anxieties particular to the crises surrounding the related issues of gender, race, law, and liberty that characterized the United States in its founding decades. The oft-repeated moments in which theatrical women are placed in danger relate directly to the nation’s most pressing socio-political issues, namely the controlling of women through restrictive gender roles, the acquisition of land through the aggressive removal of Native Americans, and the persistence of slavery in the “land of the free.” I employ a historiographical approach to the plays in this study, reading them alongside historical events such as landmark court cases, innovations in medicine, and instances of extreme mass violence. I rely on contemporary literature of the periods under review, including slave narratives, advice manuals, and newspaper articles. Finally, I draw greatly on archival research into nineteenth-century theatrical ephemera in order to create a sense of the theatre-going experience, especially when describing moments of spectacle and suspense. The specific tropes of femininity I analyze are the white virgin of Republican-era Gothic plays, the helpful Indian princess trope in Jacksonian Pocahontas dramas, and the mixed-race slave woman of antebellum slavery melodramas. To emphasize their frequency, I analyze three plays in each chapter, providing a brief survey of this dramaturgical phenomenon. I demonstrate the extent to which the racist and misogynist attitudes of patriarchy inform these representations and conclude with the consideration that this legacy still influences the depiction of femininity in American media today.