Homosexuality in lillian hellman's the children's hour and diana son’s stop kiss

Abstract EN

Generally, homosexual-centered plays are mostly left out of when studying history of drama in our classrooms and they are seen as inferior literature for social, cultural, and religious considerations.

this paper aims at cultural awareness highlighting the cultural movements that require further clarification to tolerate acceptable attitudes towards lesbians and homosexuals.

nowadays, homosexuality became an open topic for discussion in genetics, psychology, and social sciences to designate its etiology.

many dramatists and playwrights showed interest to raise this question in their literary works, but this paper deals with two plays from different decades of the twentieth century as research data.

both address the extension of social awareness that occurs during these years to accept homosexuals and recognize their rights.

for the textual analysis, the study relies on both texts, hellman’s the children hour (1934) and son’s stop kiss (1998) with special emphasis on lesbianism.

this study is divided into four sections.

the first section presents homosexuality : its definition and causes.

the second section focuses on lesbianism as a movement and a genre of literature.

the third section presents a study of lesbianism in two plays, the children's hour and stop kiss to understand the dimensions of lesbian characters (their identities and experiences), their issues and society's view towards them.

section four presents a conclusion.

the study ends with a list of references, as well as kurdish arabic and synopses.