Feminist Mothers and Daughters in Top Girls and Yerma
Through feminist theories of motherhood, this essay discusses the mother-daughter relationship, a dominant feature of two British plays, Top Girls (1982/1991) by Caryl Churchill and Yerma (2017) by Simon Stone, the latter being an adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s (1934/1968) play with the same...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Atatürk University
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Theatre Academy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2711212 |
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| Summary: | Through feminist theories of motherhood, this essay discusses the mother-daughter relationship, a dominant feature of two British plays, Top Girls (1982/1991) by Caryl Churchill and Yerma (2017) by Simon Stone, the latter being an adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s (1934/1968) play with the same title. The mothers on which this essay focuses present certain characteristics and express certain views that lead the readers/audience to identify them as feminists, though they do not declare themselves as such. What this essay argues is that the portrayal of these mothers, and particularly through the attitude of people around them, reproduces the traditional incompatibility between female empowerment and motherhood, between having a successful career and being a mother. The mother in the contemporary play Yerma can be regarded as belonging to the same generation with Marlene, the protagonist from Top Girls whose problematic relationship with her daughter is mirrored in Helen’s experience of motherhood, few decades later. Both mothers are empowered women, yet their empowerment does not come though motherhood and moreover, they do not pass it on to their daughters. |
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| ISSN: | 2980-1656 |