In search of a black female legacy: artistic creativity as an agent of transformation in Adrienne Kennedy's plays

The United States of America, which is founded on the principles of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, advocates the concept of freedom as one of the inalienable rights for all its citizens. The promise of freedom has made the United States a country of attraction for many immigrants around the world. However, for the slaves who were brought beyond their control, the United States has always been a country of paradoxes. Being abducted from their mother countries, African people have suffered ineffable pains during and after slavery.The social life of the United States is regulated by white patriarchal codes. The oppression black people have experienced in the white patriarchal world affected them mentally, spiritually, physically, and economically. Because of the prevailing patriarchal dominance, however, the black female in the United States has been under a heavier burden when compared to the black male. Oppressed more by the white male world because of her race and sex, the black female takes shelter in her creativity which enables her to cope with white male society while not losing in touch with her black roots and female heritage.Adrienne Kennedy is one of the most prolific playwrights of the United States. Her plays deal with black female characters suffering from white patriarchal oppression. Nevertheless, whatever the situation, Kennedy?s female protagonists are able to endure and survive through the ?act of writing.? They find solace in writing and by pouring out on the papers what they cannot say, they try to reconnect with their mothers? and grandmothers? legacy. This study by analyzing Adrienne Kennedy?s three plays A Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964), The Owl Answers (1965), and A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White (1976), aims to interrogate the stifling impacts of white patriarchal oppression on the black female subject. By doing so, it will also illustrate how the ?creative imagination? is used by the Afro-American playwright as a channel of healing, self-discovery and female liberation.Key Words: 1) feminism 2) black feminism 3) Adrienne Kennedy4) Funnyhouse of a Negro 5) The Owl Answers, 6) A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White.