Title: Ntozake Shange’s Dramatic Aesthetics: A Case Study of Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide

Abstract: In her representative play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf, African American playwright Ntozake Shange not only expresses her understanding of traditional African American culture through the form of choreopoem, which is deeply rooted in the African tradition, but also expounds her dramatic aesthetics in terms of black feminism by dramatizing seven black girls’ pathetic experiences. By juxtaposing African American cultural awareness and black feminism in the play, Shange articulates her dramatic aesthetics and her deep concerns over African American women’s dilemma in a white dominant society. According to Shange, African American women, who have long been forgotten and despised, should be united and make their voices heard in a unique way in order to reconstruct their ethnic and gender identities.

Keywords: Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, choreopoem, African tradition, black feminism

Authors: Yue Long, Ph.D. candidate, Foreign Studies College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Yanhong Zheng, Professor, Foreign Studies College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China.