Beth Roberts
About
My research project
Lauren Gunderson and Jaclyn Backhaus’ Historiographic Metadrama: Transgressive Twenty-First-Century Feminist RetellingsMy project considers the works of contemporary American playwrights: Lauren Gunderson and Jaclyn Backhaus. My thesis centres around their use of the historiographic metadramatic form to recover or retell the histories of women and, in some cases, trans and non-binary people. Both Gunderson and Backhaus express inclusive feminist politics that rejects the exclusionary nature of many contemporary groups that may describe themselves as "feminist" without acknowledging the varied experiences of women and the impact of patriarchal structures on women's lives.
Supervisors
My project considers the works of contemporary American playwrights: Lauren Gunderson and Jaclyn Backhaus. My thesis centres around their use of the historiographic metadramatic form to recover or retell the histories of women and, in some cases, trans and non-binary people. Both Gunderson and Backhaus express inclusive feminist politics that rejects the exclusionary nature of many contemporary groups that may describe themselves as "feminist" without acknowledging the varied experiences of women and the impact of patriarchal structures on women's lives.
Teaching
Beth has been a seminar leader for ELI1022: History of English Literature II and ELI1011: Theories of Reading II. She is currently teaching on ELI1035: Literary Histories I and ELI1033: Thinking Like a Critic I.
Publications
Donna Haraway’s 1988 article ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’ attempts to outline a loose methodology for objective feminist research. One of the key concepts in Haraway’s argument is the ‘split’ researcher; through the process of ‘splitting’, a researcher can see from a multitude of perspectives and shift away from centring their own subjective experiences. Lauren Gunderson’s 2010 play Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight likewise ‘splits’ the character of Emilie du Châtelet, which involves two actresses playing different versions of Emilie. This means that one version of Emilie, the leading Emilie, can observe the events of her life from a distance and can therefore move into a more objective sphere to come to her own conclusions. Leading Emilie must observe and sometimes enact memories from her life that lean into subjective and emotional experiences of romantic love. This article argues that despite the relative subjectivity and emotionality associated with romantic love, leading Emilie is able to make astute and helpful deductions about her romantic relationships. This suggests that the feminist researcher need not fully push aside their subjective experiences in order to come to beneficial conclusions.