The imaging of women in Bertolt Brecht`s "the good person of Szechwan" Friedrich Durrenmatt`s "the physicists"

ABSTRACT The proliferation of feminist studies during the last thirty years has led to a broad exploration of diverse questions and established fields. Adressing interrelated questions about modernist canon formation and gender and theater with a focus on the trope of madness,lhis paper tries to analyze two modernist drama texts,BerloIt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan and Friedrich Diirrenmatt's The Physicists, which are written by men. The texts in question are central to the canon of modern drama, which presupposes universalist notions of modernity,marginality, and madness,but according to me, relies on gendered notions to stage this univcrsalism. I begin this research with an overview of feminist theater criticism which focuses on women,yet in which I do not solely decry the lack of representation of women in plays by men,nor do I simply value the representation of women. While reading this work,a feminist reader might expect more discussion of female figures or question of femininity. For example,the chapter two on Friedrich Diirrenmatt's The Physicists elaborates on science,dramatic form.and madness before it discusses briefly the questions of the play's female characters. The triangulated relationship of modernism,madness,and sexual politics allows to me analyze how these three categories intersect to stage woman in these plays.Briefly,in this paper I try to search the relationship of modcrnism,gendcr,sexuaI politics,and madness in and against traditions of feminist research.