The Susan Glaspell Society

New Publications

Calls for Papers

Archives

Links

Bibliography

Inheritors

Chains of Dew

Home

Archives - 2005

“Revisions of Gender and the Lesbian Continuum: Relations Among Women in the Life and Dramatic Works of Susan Glaspell,” Cheryl Black (University of Missouri)

“‘Woman’s Honor’ or Virtue Unrewarded: Glaspell’s Parodic Challenge to Ideologies of Sexual Conduct in the Early Decades of the 20^th Century,” Sharon Friedman (New York University)

“Glaspell and the Discourse of American Taste,” J. Ellen Gainor (Cornell University)

“Drama and Cultural Pluralism in the America of Susan Glaspell’s Inheritors,” Noelia Hernando-Real (University Autónoma de Madrid)

“Glaspell’s Modernist New Woman in The Verge and Other Plays,” Barbara Ozieblo (University of Málaga)

“Susan Glaspell and the Politics of Performing Women,” Monica Stufft (University of California, Berkeley)

The Susan Glaspell Society panel at the ATDS/University of Kansas Conference had a good audience and panelists gave papers that opened up new topics for Glaspell research.  Cheryl began the session with an investigation of the “lesbian continuum” in Glaspell’s writing, showing how a recognition of this continuum can provide us with new insights into her work and with an understanding of “the invention of compulsory hetereosexuality as a political and economic institution in American life.”  Sharon examined Glaspell’s use of parody in “Woman’s Honor,” and argued that it allowed her to “think backward at the same time that she thinks forward with ironic critical distance.”  Ellen Gainor explored the conflicting categories of the “commercial” and the “purely artistic,” or the modernist and the avant-garde as applied to Glaspell’s fiction and plays and the consequences of using such labels.  Noelia deconstructed Inheritors from the critical stance provided by cultural pluralism and so was able to show how Glaspell rethinks the concept of American identity in this play in a way that can only be “labeled as radical.”  Basia (Barbara) looked at Glaspell’s relationship with her audience in Chains of Dew and The Verge, indicating that the different types of protagonist and the different tone of the two plays responds to an attempt to write for Broadway.  The session ended with Monica who explored the communities of women that the theatre brought together, and the “new set of possibilities” and “material and ideological constraints” that work for groups such as the Provincetown Players or the Ziegfield Girls offered women.

On Friday evening there was a staged reading of Inheritors, in a version that had been cut and prepared by Iris Fischer, and directed by Erin Jones. Ellen Gainor read “Olivia” Morton and Isabel Fejevary and, in spite of an on-coming cold, was magnificent.  We all agreed that hearing/seeing Inheritors gave us new insights into the play and emphasized its relevance to today’s world and events.  The SG Society web site will soon host this version of Inheritors, making the text available for future productions.

The Susan Glaspell Society was listed as a conference sponsor in the conference program; SG Society members who participated in our panel covered the costs of the program for the reading of Inheritors.

American Literature Association 16th Annual Conference
May 26-29, 2005
The Westin Copley, Boston, MA

The Susan Glaspell Society Sponsored Panel:
 "Four Decades of Fiction at the Forefront: Susan Glaspell's
Critique of American Ideology"

The panel, on Thursday, May 26 2005, Session 2-E 10:00-11:20, was chaired by Martha Carpentier and featured the following papers:

"Evaluating America: Cultural Commentary in Susan Glaspell's Magazine Fiction," by Colette Lindroth (Caldwell College)

"Susan Glaspell's Last Word on Democracy and War," by Mary E. Papke (University of Tennessee)

"Susan Glaspell and the Epistemological Crisis of Modernity: Truth, Knowledge, and Art in Selected Novels," by Kristina Hinz-Bode (Universitat Kassel)
 

The Eugene O’Neill Society
6th International Conference
Provincetown, MA : “Where it all began"
June 15-20, 2005

Susan Glaspell and Eugene O'Neill were brought together again in their beloved Provincetown, as the Susan Glaspell Society participated in the Eugene O'Neill Society's 6th International Conference, June 15-20, 2005.  The SG Society sponsored a Glaspell keynote address by Linda Ben-Zvi, a panel, a roundtable, and a wine-and-cheese reception following the Provincetown Fringe Festival's second annual Glaspell play-reading marathon.  Many thanks to O'Neill Society President Zander Brietzke and Vice President Steven Bloom for their warm welcome and the chance for scholars of these great playwrights to come together. From left to right, rear to front, by row: Linda Ben-Zvi, Judith Barlow, Cheryl Black, Marcia Noe; Sharon Friedman, Patricia Bryan, Ellen Gainor, Lucia Sander;  Steve Bloom, Barbara Ozieblo, Sally Heckel, Zander Brietzke;  Martha Carpentier

The Susan Glaspell Society Sponsored
Roundtable and Panel
with Glaspell Keynote by Linda Ben-Zvi,
Friday June 17, 11:15: 

"The Place of Provincetown in Glaspell's Writing."

Susan Glaspell first came to Provincetown in the summer of 1912. When she married Jig Cook in 1913, they returned and the next year bought a house at 564 Commercial Street that was to be Glaspell's home for the rest of her life. In Provincetown she found a community of like-minded artists and writers who provided her with the intellectual support and understanding her Davenport, Iowa family and friends were unable to offer. It is, therefore, not surprising, that Provincetown—its setting, people, and history—played a significant role in her writing. In her presentation Prof. Ben Zvi discussed Glaspell's life in Provincetown and the ways in which she depicts elements of the locale and specific residents in her plays and fiction.

Glaspell's home in Provincetown. Saturday included a tour for SG Society members courtesy of current owners, Mr. and Mrs. William Teague.

The upstairs room in which Trifles was written, windows facing the bay.

Provincetown Fringe Festival Second Susan Glaspell Play-Reading Marathon, Friday June 17, 1:00-5:00

Provincetown Fringe Festival director Karen Maloney (left), Judith Barlow, and others read
Glaspell and Cook's Tickless Time. Suppressed Desires and Woman's Honor were also read. Following
the readings, the SG Society hosted a wine-and-cheese gathering at the Provincetown Inn.

"Susan Glaspell's 'The Plea': Foreshadowing 'Trifles' and Concerns About Law and Justice," Patricia L. Bryan (University of North Carolina Law School)

"A Trembling Hand, a Rocking Chair, and a Rocking Chair or Kitchen Sink: Glaspell, O'Neill and their Early Dramatic Experiences," Lucia Sander (University of Brasilia)

"Woman's Honor and the Critique of Slander Per Se," J. Ellen Gainor (Cornell University)

"Writing for the Provincetown: Glaspell's 'New Woman' in Chains of Dew," Barbara Ozieblo (University of Malaga)

Roundtable III: Susan Glaspell in Context, Sunday June 19, 10:15

Moderator: Linda Ben-Zvi (Tel Aviv University)

Participants:
Sharon Friedman (New York University)
Cheryl Black, (University of Missouri, Columbia)
J. Ellen Gainor (Cornell University)
Marcia Noe (University of Tennessee)
Barbara Ozieblo (University of Malaga)
Sally Heckel (independent filmmaker, New York City)

Sunday's roundtable discussion at the Pilgrim Monument museum featured  (from left to right) Marcia Noe, Cheryl Black, Sally Heckel, moderator Linda Ben-Zvi, Ellen Gainor, Sharon Friedman, Basia Ozieblo.  Animated discussion included panelists and audience members, and ranged from the future of
Glaspell studies to the relationship of Susan Glaspell and husband Jig Cook.

2005 Events Featuring Susan Glaspell Hosted by WITASWAN

Chicago celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of Sally Heckel’s Oscar-nominated film version of "A Jury of Her Peers" in a big way in 2005.  In March, Sally conducted a post-screening Q&A at the Chicago Cultural Center, followed by a lecture by Patricia Bryan & Tom Wolf (authors of Midnight Assassin: Murder in America’s Heartland).

Linda Ben-Zvi addresses the Illinois Women's Press Association
on Susan Glaspell: Her Life and Times
at the University Center, Chicago, Illinois
Weds, September 28, 2005, 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Linda Ben-Zvi read from her new biography Susan Glaspell: Her Life and Times, and also directed students from De Paul University’s Theatre School in selected scenes from Inheritors, Suppressed Desires, and Trifles.

Both events were organized by WITASWAN (“Women in the Audience Supporting Women Artists Now”), a nationwide initiative dedicated to eliminating the “Celluloid Ceiling” that continues to restrict opportunities for women filmmakers, coordinated by SG Society member, Jan Lisa Huttner.

Filmmaker Sally Heckel

Linda Ben-Zvi signing her biography of SG in Chicago.