Silenced women in history a feminist-revisionist study of Caryl Churchill’s vinegar tom (1976)‎ and Sarah Daniels' Byrthrite (1986)‎

Abstract EN

paper presents a feminist-revisionist study of Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom (1976) and Sarah Daniels' Byrthrite (1986).

The two plays are “history plays.

” In fact, the two feminist dramatists represent the history of the witchcraft trials in the 17th century England from a very feminist perspective.

The current research paper offers a new understanding of the history of that era which could form an alternative kind of history to the “official” male-made one.

Significantly, this paper attempts to analyze the two plays in terms of form and content.

Interestingly, the two playwrights represent a revolutionary content in a very innovative form.

Their main objective is to focus on the female subjectivity through their theatrical representation and to establish a new female- gaze to replace the male one.

The content of the two plays deal with very controversial issues including, women's oppression within a patriarchal system, reproductive rights, gender construction, sexuality, queer identities and sexual orientations.

These provocative subjects are represented through the use of many innovative devices and techniques.

Most of the devices employed by Churchill and Daniels are Brechtian including, historicization, cross-dressing, doubling, monologues, music, and songs.

All in all, this research paper re-explores the dramatic and theatrical representation of history in both Churchill's Vinegar Tom and Daniels' Byrthrite.

It compares between the two playwrights, one is identified as a socialist feminist and the other one is radical, in terms of their different dramatic techniques of approaching the revision of history.