Making the Bones Sing: The Feminist History Play, 1976-2010

The emergence of feminist historiography around 1976 has been amplified by innovative historical dramas written between 1976 and 2010 that present women's pasts through a new critical lens. Historiographers have reconsidered how to look at the past to account for women's presence, while dramatists have used language and performance in new ways to implicate a community in reshaping the past. Historical drama and performance has registered the major questions vexing feminist historiographers during the last quarter of the twentieth century, but has implicated spectators in a search for answers. Both writers of history and writers of drama recognize the urgency of reforming women's history to produce a past on which they can build toward the future.