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Reviews 525 generalizations, and absence of source analysis marring McKee Rankin and the Heyday of the American Theater. Suffice to add, however, that without David Beasley's efforts here, neither that history nor the historiographical issues it raises would be recalled. J. ELLEN GAINOR. Susan Glaspell in Context: American Theater. Culture, alld Politics, 1915-48. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001. Pp. 327, illustrated. $52.50 (Hb). Reviewed by Jennifer Jones, Louisiana State University A prolific writer who experimented with almost every theatrical form in circulation at the beginning of the twentieth century, Susan Glaspell tackled many of the most divisive political and social issues of her day. Her elimination from the ranks of America's great dramatists repeats the fate accorded many early-twentieth-century women playwrights, including Zona Gale, Sophie Treadwell, Marita Bonner, and Angelina Grimke, to name just a few. Through the efforts of feminist literary critics, Glaspell was eventually granted marginal re-entry into the American dramatic canon through her oft-anthologized but hardly representative one-act play, Trifles. In Susan Glaspel/ in Context: American Theater, Culture, and Politics, 1915- 48, 1. Ellen Gainor convincingly argues that there is much more to Glaspell than Trifles. She challenges the pigeonholing of Glaspell as a feminist playwright, a characterization often aggravated by the inclusion of Trifles as the "token" woman's play in a sea of male-authored plays on diverse political and social themes. Though Glaspell's plays center on complex women and their varied and often extraordinary achievements, Gainor asks us to widen our analytic perspective and see the full range of progressive political and artistic views that Glaspell brought to her drama. Even though a concern with gender is what attracts most scholars to Glaspell, she was dedicated to many social causes, feminism among them, and wrote from a commitment to a radical American politics. Race, ethnicity, sexuality, the social responsibility of writers and artists, abuses of the criminal justice system - all of these issues are reflected in her body of work. Gainor writes, "Glaspell's politics embraced but exceeded sexual politics" (131). Though I admire Gainor's impulse to deghettoize Glaspell, I am troubled by the implication that socially progressive attitudes on race, ethnicity, and criminal justice are not feminist in nature. Gainor analyzes the social and political resonances of Glaspell's plays while demonstrating that she experimented with almost every theatrical form far more vigorously than did her contemporaries. Part of what facilitated her experimentation was her espousal of the one-act structure, and Gainor REVIEWS includes an extremely useful discussion of this structure that validates it as a legitimate dramatic form. Since it is less in use today, many contemporary readers may dismiss the one-act as more of an exercise than a complete dramatic vision. Gainor argues instead that the one-act was in fact central to the development of American dramaturgy because the form allowed for experimentation and innovation. Indeed, Glaspelltook full advantage of the one-act to experiment with symbolism. expressionism. and realism. Critics were not always receptive to her work - in part. Gainor argues. because they were confused about Glaspell's style, which seemed 10 shift from production to production . Glaspell was part of an artistic movement that was constantly experimenting with dramatic form, yet while O'Neill was and is praised for his versatility, women playwrights who experimented were often criticized for lacking a clear artistic vision. Whereas some critics dismiss Glaspell's experimentation as an "instability of technique," Gainor argues that one could just as easily praise Glaspell for demonstrating "remarkable breadth" (93). Gainor does an excellent job of incorporating the overwhelmingly male critical response to Glaspell and of analyzing how many of her feminist themes have been misread or overlooked by critics focusing on other aspects of her work. Just as Glaspell's plays expose the patriarchal construction of femininity, Gainor argues that male dramatic and literary critics construct standards of acceptable "drama" that resist a female-driven narrative. Reviewers often critiqued Glaspell's plays for a lack of "universality," and Gainor argues persuasively that this was because the plays featured women's experiences (164). Still, the subjects of Glaspell's plays give us...

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