Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Wasserstein, Wendy (Vol. 183) - Helene Keyssar (essay date March 1991)

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Helene Keyssar (essay date March 1991)

SOURCE: Keyssar, Helene. “Drama and the Dialogic Imagination: The Heidi Chronicles and Fefu and Her Friends.” Modern Drama 34, no. 1 (March 1991): 88-106.

[In the following essay, Keyssar contrasts the semiotic differences between The Heidi Chronicles and Maria Irene Fornes's Fefu and Her Friends, refuting the contention by philosopher-critic Mikhail Bakhtin that all dramatic literature is “monologic” by demonstrating the confluence between Bakhtinian criticism and contemporary feminist thought.]

I first came to know the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin in the mid-seventies.¹ Increasingly hailed as one of the most daring and profound philosopher-critics of the twentieth century, Bakhtin was difficult to read but easy to admire.² Indeed, as striking as has been the growing interest in Bakhtin's ideas has been the range of people whose interest he...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Wendy Wasserstein and Esther Cohen (interview date August 1987)
   2. Gerald Weales (review date 5 May 1989)
   3. Joanne Kirschner (review date 1990)
   4. Kate Davy (review date March 1990)
   5. Helene Keyssar (essay date March 1991)
   6. Wendy Wasserstein and The Playwright's Art (interview date 9 October 1991)
   7. Alex Raksin (review date 30 May 1993)
   8. Sheridan Morley (review date 20 August 1994)
   9. Stefan Kanfer (review date 7 November 1994)
   10. Richard Donahue (essay date 22 April 1996)
   11. Ilene Cooper (review date 1 June 1996)
   12. Stefan Kanfer (review date 7 April 1997)
   13. Claudia Barnett (review date December 1997)
   14. Stephen J. Whitfield (essay date 1997)
   15. Jan Balakian (essay date 1999)
   16. David Shengold (review date March 2000)
   17. Publishers Weekly (review date 23 April 2001)
   18. Miriam M. Chirico (essay date 2001)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright