Gender and Comedy in the Age of American Revolution

In 1776, on the eve of America declaring its independence from British colonial rule, Abigail Adams famously reminded her husband to remember the ladies and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. John Adams, however, while drafting the American Constitution did not heed his spouses warning to not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Granting equality and liberty and pursuit of happiness in theory to every American citizen, the constitution re- frains from including women as well as African and Native Americans in practicing these core Ameri- can rights. Consequently, women were excluded from active participation in political affairs. But that did not prevent them from participating outspokenly through other venues of communication, one of which was the dramatic literary genre. Since the turbulent times of the revolution and with Mercy Otis Warren as one of the most prominently visible personage, women have articulated their political opin- ions in plays, some of which were performed, others only published, many of them neither and lost. Apart from Warren and a few others, the ladies have been forgotten, erased from cultural memory as well as from academic history. This project aims at remembering these ladies of the early American stage as well as their male counterparts, many of whom are also forgotten but essential as a foil for understanding the theatrical cultural climate at large by reinstalling them in the historical accounts of the drama and theater of the revolutionary era. The project attempts a virtually first reconstruction of the history of North American dramatic writings of the 18th century from a gendered perspective. For historical, but also practical reasons, the project is partitioned in three historical-topical sections, covering the colonial pre-revolutionary time with a focus on male homosocial relations and the use of comedy to negotiate these relationships (period case study 1), the revolutionary period 1775-1783 with a focus on Mercy Otis Warren and her contemporaries (period case study 2), and the post- revolutionary years of the early republic up until 1812 and its key comediennes (period case study 3). Special attention will be given to the various comic genres, since a basic working hypothesis of the research project is that it was comedy, rather than tragedy, that marks the best and most productive platform of political discourse filtered through dramatic works, not only but especially for female playwrights. It seems that female more than male writers preferably turned to comic genres to gain public influence, which otherwise was prohibited by law and custom. It therefore was through comedy that women raised their voices, articulated their political opinion, helped shape the new republic, and strove to be remembered.

In 1776, on the eve of America declaring its independence from British colonial rule, Abigail Adams famously reminded her husband to remember the ladies and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. John Adams, however, while drafting the American Constitution did not heed his spouses warning to not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Granting equality and liberty and pursuit of happiness in theory to every American citizen, the constitution refrains from including women as well as African and Native Americans in practicing these core American rights. Consequently, women were excluded from active participation in political affairs. But that did not prevent them from participating outspokenly through other venues of communication, one of which was the dramatic literary genre. Since the turbulent times of the revolution and with Mercy Otis Warren as one of the most prominently visible personage, women have articulated their political opinions in plays, some of which were performed, others only published, many of them neither and lost. Apart from Warren and a few others, the ladies have been forgotten, erased from cultural memory as well as from academic history. This project aimed at remembering these ladies of the early American stage as well as their male counterparts, many of whom are also forgotten but essential as a foil for understanding the theatrical cultural climate at large by reinstalling them in the historical accounts of the drama and theater of the revolutionary era. The project attempted a virtually first reconstruction of the history of North American dramatic writings of the 18th century from a gendered perspective. For historical, but also practical reasons, the project was partitioned in three historical-topical sections, covering the colonial pre-revolutionary time with a focus on male homosocial relations and the use of comedy to negotiate these relationships (period case study 1), the revolutionary period 1775-1783 with a focus on Mercy Otis Warren and her contemporaries (period case study 2), and the post-revolutionary years of the early republic up until 1812 and its key comediennes (period case study 3). Special attention has been given to the various comic genres, since a basic working hypothesis of the research project is that it was comedy, rather than tragedy, that marks the best and most productive platform of political discourse filtered through dramatic works, not only but especially for female playwrights. It seems that female more than male writers preferably turned to comic genres to gain public influence, which otherwise was prohibited by law and custom. It therefore was through comedy that women raised their voices, articulated their political opinion, helped shape the new republic, and strove to be remembered.