Venus (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Suzan-Lori Parks
- First Published: 1997
- Type of Work: Play
- Genres: Drama
- Subjects: Africa or Africans, Racism, Blacks, Love or romance, Europe or Europeans, Paris, Eighteenth century, Women, London, South Africa or South Africans, Stereotypes
- Locales: Europe
With a cast of four and a chorus of five, thirty-one scenes, and a number of original songs, Venus—the true-life story of Saartjie Baartman, the Venus Hottentot—is brought to life by Parks; she received her second Obie Award as the best Off-Broadway play of the year in 1996 for it. In 1810, Baartman, a member of the Khoi-San peoples of South Africa, was transported to London and Paris, where she was dubbed “The Hottentot Venus” and put on public display in near nude conditions. Her “act” generated a thriving business: the display of her genitalia and buttocks,...
[The entire page is 668 words long]
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