Cats on a Cold Tin Roof: Female Identity and Language in Plays by Five Contemporary Scottish Women Playwrights

Abstract

Cats on a Cold Tin Roof: Female Identity and Language in Plays by Five Contemporary Scottish Women Playwrights concentrates on investigation into the main preoccupations of five Scottish women playwrights in the last twenty years, with an emphasis on the ways in which they deal with the issues of gender identity. The study examines fifteen plays by five very different women authors in the context of modern feminist literary analysis. The main objective of the study is to show how Sue Glover, Liz Lochhead, Marcella Evaristi, Sharman Macdonald and Rona Munro – having come from different experiential perspectives – used recurring themes, imagery and discursive modes in exploring female identity. A further objective of the study is to open up and encourage new avenues for exploring female identity in the work of Scottish women playwrights. It also sets out to identify the common themes and imagery shared by these authors, and the ways in which they are expressed in language.