The Feminist Possibilities of Dramatic Realism by Patricia R. Schroeder (review)

Book Reviews in opposition to Brecht's fragmentary approach. Bringing these ideas into the discussion would have added illumination. Finally, Eddershaw notes that Brecht's "odd mix of linguistic structures, shifting registers, and slang are very hard to translate into English" (53). Actors, she adds, "need to be made aware of the intentions and functions of Brecht's (and the translator's) choices of language in order to use the text effectively" (I7 I). Since the author fails to provide examples of how Brechtian dialogue-its dialect and idiomatic usage-might be rendered accurately in English, and since the author herself uses only English translations (no German texts are listed in the bibliography), her criticism of translations and performers is ostensibly groundless. The author makes excellent and constructive suggestions for the improvement of acting on the English stage. For Eddershaw, solutions lie in a deletion of the star system, an effort at ensemble rather than individual performances, and a call for socially aware actors and directors. However, these protocols are neither necessarily Brechtian nor British; rather, they simply constitute sound advice for all theatre practitioners. In its survey of Brecht's productions, this book works well as a companion to Janelle Reinelt's After Brecht: British Epic Theater, but it falls short in instructing actors in the ways and means of actually performing Brecht. Perhaps Brecht was not an "actor's director," but a playwright and theorist interested in audience responses, montage, and socially committed theatre. He was arguably less concerned with acting technique and more concerned with social change. Nonetheless, actors still have to perform Brecht's plays, and in this regard Eddershaw's study is a disappointment. DAVID KRASNER, YALE UNIVERSITY PATRICIA R. SCHROEDER. The Feminist Possibilities ofDramatic Realism. Madison , NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 1996. Pp. 185. $32.50. In The Feminist Possibilities ofDramatic Realism, Patricia Schroeder gracefully takes on a number of prominent feminist theatre theorists - Sue-Ellen Case, Jill Dolan, Elin Diamond, Jeanie Forte, and others - all of whom have argued that realist drama is antithetical to feminism. Schroeder offers a reasoned and highly readable response to feminists who completely reject realism for its associations with patriarchal structures of power. Schroeder provides this much-needed rejoinder to the anti-realist arguments by emphasizing the importance of context and history in the analysis of any work potentially deemed feminist. Simultaneously, she proffers balanced readings of a number of dramatic texts to illustrate both the strengths and limitations in the feminism of twentieth-century plays by American women. Book Reviews 179 Early in her discussion, Schroeder highlights a central problem w.ith much of the anti-realist debate: the assumption of a static form for realism. As Schroeder explains, theatre theorists must realize the fluidity of such terms; the fact that these forms constantly evolve, and that artists adapt forms to fit their needs, makes it very difficult for critics to generalize about them. Similarly , an analysis of the historical and cultural contexts in which a theatrical work appeared reveals the multiple dramaturgical possibilities within the designation "feminist drama." In my opinion, it is the laner of these two points - the need for an historically aware, "contextual feminism" (96) - that makes Schroeder's work both timely and important. Much of the debate she engages developed from a poststructuralist , post-Brechtian sen~ibility that championed contemporary feminist , non-realist theatre for its subversion of traditional dramatic form. For historians of women's dramaturgy, however, these edicts have always been specious, precisely because they have not considered as legitimately feminist the plays of earlier eras that were both written for expressly feminist purposes and received as such by their audiences. Schroeder makes the laudable decision to place at the center of her volume the examination of lesser-known plays by women from the early decades of the twentieth century. Drawing examples from the work Edna Ferber, Zona Gale, Marion Craig Wentworth, Rachel Crothers, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman , among others, Schroeder strategically devotes almost a third of her book to the exploration of domestic drama - a realist locus that has been all-tooeasily dismissed by feminist theorists precisely because of its connection with the ideology of separate spheres and women's...