Resumen de Introduction
Noelia Hernando Real, Bárbara Ozieblo Rajkowska
The above declaration, made in 2006 by Kofi Annan (“Ending Violence”), is unfortunately still valid. Violence against women, in the home or outside the home, in peace as in war, a result of fanaticism or of structural inequality in society—in every part of the world—continues to confound our civilization. It is not limited to so-called third-world countries or primitive societies; statistics would seem to indicate that, indeed, as Wolfgang Sofsky affirmed, violence “is inherent to culture. The latter bears the seal everywhere of death and violence…. Violence itself is a product of human culture, a result of cultural experience” (qtd. in Sampson 87–88). Feminist criticism of the second half of the twentieth century drew our attention not only to gendered, but also to racial inequalities and focused the spotlights on how our society treats—or rather, mistreats—women. The theater, particularly women’s theater, has been a useful tool in awakening awareness of violence; this volume attempts to chart the ways in which American women dramatists have reflected the changing attitudes and the ever-more sophisticated techniques of portrayal of the reactions to suffering caused by both domestic and social violence at home and abroad.
