Abstract
This thesis considers how historiographic metadrama which deals with a plurality of feminist
issues has become a key methodological approach used by contemporary feminist
playwrights. Focusing on the oeuvres of Lauren Gunderson and Jaclyn Backhaus, I argue that
following on from a line of feminist playwrights, twenty-first-century American feminist
playwrights use historiographic metadrama to examine modes of history-telling by drawing
attention to the constructedness of narratives through metadramatic conceits.
Using the foundational feminist works of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Judith Butler and Sara
Ahmed, I trace how Gunderson and Backhaus use metadramatic retellings of historical stories
to draw attention to the issues formed by patriarchal, white supremacist, cisheteronormative
systems of oppression. Leaning on Richard Hornby’s work on metadrama and definitions of
metadramatic functions, I consider how two of Gunderson’s plays and two of Backhaus’
plays toy with the metadramatic form and use it to a feminist end. By challenging traditional
methods of historiography, Gunderson and Backhaus not only contend with the specific
historical records they choose to interrogate, but they also suggest that history itself is marred
by the prevalence of narratives from the perspectives of oppressive figures.