"THE ERA OF THE STRONG BUT FEMININE WOMAN”: INTERTEXT IN THE PLAY “THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG” BY W. WASSERSTEIN

The drama of the American writer Wendy Wasserstein is an important material for literary studies. Of particular interest for the study is the intertextual aspect of her work. The article analyses the interpretation of Chekhov`s motives (on the example of the drama “Three Sisters”) in Wasserstein’s drama on the example of the play “Sisters Rosensweig” (1992). It is determined that the concept of intertextuality in literary studies means the interaction of any text with each other, the superposition of the text on another. The main aspects of intertextuality that are relevant for the analysis of W. Wasserstein’s drama are analyzed and highlighted. Chekhov’s motives are described in the drama “The Sisters Rosenzweig” and the commonalities and differences between Chekhov’s play “Three Sisters” and Wasserstein are highlighted. The ideological-aesthetic and genre transformations of Chekhov’s artistic models proposed by an American woman playwright are analysed. The use of the classification of intertexts rel­evant for the analysis of plays by W. Wasserstein, according to M. Trostnikov is substantiated. In Chekhov’s play adapted by an American female playwrigh, popular plots and motifs receive a different feminist, optimistic sound development that meets the needs of late twentieth-century American society as well as in the con­text of novelty. Chekhov’s motives in Wasserstein’s drama made it possible to assess the degree of intertextuality of the play “The Sisters Rosenzweig”, in particular to find clear components of intertextuality in the drama. Rewriting Chekhov’s drama “Three Sisters” (1901) at the gap of almost a century, American playwright Wendy Wasserstein described the life of the Chekhov sisters in the modern way: successful professionals, two sisters realized themselves at the same time in motherhood and with love. Wasserstein practically preserved the plot, motives, artistic techniques and details in her modern play. The play­wright creates an interesting intertext that captivates the reader with a play on the discovery of “Chekhov style” in the text, the recognition of factual material and fiction.

Speech behavior of women characters in representation of the concept FAMILY in in the dramaturgical discourse of Wendy Wasserstein

The article is devoted to the study and systematization of the speech behavior of women in the representation of the concept FAMILY in the communicative space of the characters of the modern American dramatic discourse on the example of the plays of Wendy Wasserstein. The dynamics of gender markers reveals trends in the cognitive system in the axiological paradigm of American dramatic discourse. Communicative practices of the characters of dramatic works reflect the stereotypical behavior of male and female characters in different situations, which allows to study the specifics of female and male language behavior of a particular society. In studying this specificity, researchers often turn to linguoconceptology. Studies of the subject’s linguistic behavior in line with the anthropocentric paradigm allow linguists to study the processes occurring at the time of the creation of a linguistic phenomenon, which reflects cultural, gender, social and age factors. Any of the listed aspects affects the communication strategies of the subject, which makes it possible to study the linguistic activity of the broadcaster from the point of view of linguocultural, conceptual and gender approaches. Conceptual fields based on replicas of female characters in modern plays by American playwright Wendy Wasserstein are analysed. Communicative strategies of speech behavior of female characters in dramatic discourse indicate the linguistic and cultural features of the language of communicators, which suggests the existence of a unique language culture of American society, which was formed under the influence of accepted norms in society. The main concepts of the playwright’s discourse “Family” and “Career”, which are verbalized through a number of examples, are analysed.

Uncommon Women’s Dilemmas in Wendy Wasserstein’s Quasi-Trilogy

Winning several important drama awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award, Wendy Wasserstein (1950~2006) is one of the significant playwrights in the history of American theatre. Especially, Wasserstein stimulates the public’s attention to women’s issues by recording many successful female characters in her plays. Aware of the impact of the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s, Wasserstein describes how the social movement influences women’s personal life and depicts the joy and pain that feminism brings them. While the backlash against feminism is saturated in the 1980s, Wasserstein also discusses this anti-feminist force in society to see women’s struggles and their awakening. This paper deals with three of Wasserstein’s plays, Uncommon Women and Others (1977), Isn’t It Romantic (1983), and The Heidi Chronicles (1988), together as a quasi-trilogy to examine the development of feminism over three decades from the 1960s to the 1980s and to portray the women’s dilemma of marriage or career. Regarding the women’s predicament of being either “in” or “out” of the family, the paper argues that Wasserstein in the plays sketches different possibilities by emphasizing the diversity of women’s life experience and their autonomy.