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Palgrave Macmillan

Failure, Fascism, and Teachers in American Theatre

Pedagogy of the Oppressors

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. James F. Wilson

    1. City University of New York, New York, USA

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  • Explores the shifting representations of schoolteachers and professors in theater
  • Uses plays and performances to examine the public’s ongoing conflicted attitudes toward educators
  • Considers the ways in which theatre artists have represented teachers within and against the political contexts

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History (PSTPH)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
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  2. Introduction: “Unbecoming Teachers”

    • James F. Wilson
    Pages 1-11

  3. “All the Single Ladies”: A Century of Schoolmarms, Spinsters, and Superwomen Teachers

    • James F. Wilson
    Pages 13-47

  4. Lesbians, Vampires, and Vermin: The Unspeakable Dangers of Unfit Teachers, 1920s–1940s

    • James F. Wilson
    Pages 49-74

  5. Commies on Campus: Radical Liberalism and Academic Freedom, 1940s–1950s

    • James F. Wilson
    Pages 75-115

  6. Crème de la Crème of Fascism: Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Margarida, and Sister Mary Ignatius Explain It All for You, 1960s–1980s

    • James F. Wilson
    Pages 117-146

  7. Failure to Achieve: A Report Card on Male Educators in the Theatre

    • James F. Wilson
    Pages 147-182

  8. Epilogue: “Becomes a Student”

    • James F. Wilson
    Pages 183-185

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 187-216
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Keywords

About this book

This timely and accessible book explores the shifting representations of schoolteachers and professors in plays and performances primarily from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the United States. Examining various historical and recurring types, such as spinsters, schoolmarms, presumed sexual deviants, radicals and communists, fascists, and emasculated men teachers, Wilson shines the spotlight on both well-known and nearly-forgotten plays. The analysis draws on a range of scholars from cultural and gender studies, queer theory, and critical race discourses to consider teacher characters within notable education movements and periods of political upheaval. Richly illustrated, the book will appeal to theatre scholars and general readers as it delves into plays and performances that reflect cultural fears, desires, and fetishistic fantasies associated with educators. In the process, the scrutiny on the array of characters may help illuminate current attacks on real-life teachers while providing meaningful opportunities for intervention in the ongoing education wars.

Authors and Affiliations

  • City University of New York, New York, USA

    James F. Wilson

About the author

James F. Wilson is the Executive Officer of the Theatre and Performance Program at the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA. His work has appeared in several chapter anthologies and academic journals, and he is the author of Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Race, Performance, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance (2010). 

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