The Gendered Terrain in Contemporary Theatre of War by Women

The Iraq wars and the ubiquitous war on terror have generated numerous theatrical productions in the United States that envision the subjectivities of perpetrators as well as victims of violence. A number of plays, predominantly composed by women, focus more specifically on the experience of women in war and foreground ideologies of gender inscribed on bodies and transformed into brutal practices. This essay focuses on the synergy between the emerging scholarship on women and war, reports of widespread rape and sexual abuse in war-torn territories, the gendered culture of the military, and theatre by women, particularly in the last decade, that addresses the engendering of armed conflict in specific war zones. In addition to discussions of Lynn Nottage's Ruined, Danai Gurira's Eclipsed, and Heather Raffo's Nine Parts of Desire, the essay includes an extended analysis of Judith Thompson's Palace of the End.