A Call to Dance: The Transformative Power of Dreams and Grief in Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz
| dc.contributor.advisor | McGrane, Laura | |
| dc.contributor.author | Serebrenik, Avi | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-12-04T18:54:55Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-12-04T18:54:55Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This essay shows how The Baltimore Waltz channels the playwright’s, Paula Vogel’s, regret about not going on a journey through Europe with her brother before his passing from AIDS, to dream of a world where victims of HIV/AIDS aren’t stigmatized, where they are treated like the dream world’s protagonist, Anna, and a future where victims of HIV/AIDS are honored and remembered for being the multitudinous people that they are. The essay explores how each element of the Freudian dreamwork plays its part in this process, allowing the audience not only to see the hidden shame around HIV/AIDS but also to begin grieving for Carl, Anna’s brother and a victim of AIDS, which according to Judith Butler is a recognition of someone’s humanity. Butler also shows us how grief and mourning are ongoing transformative processes, and this essay argues that The Baltimore Waltz harnesses this potential to call upon the audience to carry the affect of grief with them and extend it towards others who suffer, or more specifically, the HIV susceptible people in their communities. The play acknowledges that the cruelties of the real world can’t be denied, but through its dream vision, it makes us question what reality could be. Ultimately, AIDS is no longer so strongly in the public consciousness, but this essay argues that the play has taken on a new life as an archive of the early years of the AIDS crisis and a guide toward challenging and transforming our communities to recognize queer lives. | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Haverford College. Department of English | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10066/50080 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights.access | Bi-College users only | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ | |
| dc.title | A Call to Dance: The Transformative Power of Dreams and Grief in Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz | |
| dc.type | Thesis |