Author

Sonali Kumar

Date of Award

5-1-2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Theater

First Advisor

Dr. Douglas Paterson

Abstract

This thesis equivalent projects documents the internal and external devices of Tony Kushner’s 2004 play Homebody/Kabul through the lens of dramaturgy.

Chapter One, Introduction, establishes definitions of dramaturgy from noted scholars Anne Cattaneo and Martin Esslin. Chapter Two, Dramaturgical Analysis of the Text, provides a frame for the external structure of the play, and investigates questions of the playwrights past work, the place production history, and the use of Nany Hatch Dupree’s book, A Historical Guide to the City of Kabul, and the changes in the text from the 2001 First Edition to the 2004 Revised Edition of Homebody/Kabul. The third chapter, Areas of Dramaturgical Inquiry, discusses eight key areas, including the history of Afghanistan; the development of the Taliban; the timeline suggested in the play by the 1998 embassy bombings; the multiple cases of substance abuse; questions about the alleged grave of Cain; the role of Frank Sinatra's music in the play; the sevem foreign languages spoken in the text; and the changes in the script since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

Comments

A Thesis Equivalent Project Presented to the Department of Dramatic Arts and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha. Copyright 2006 Sonali Kumar.

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