Suzan Lori Parks: Challenging Stereotypes

Suzan Lori Parks: Challenging Unfavorable Stereotypes

Ben Yagoda writes in The Sound on the Page, that “each writer has a stylistic fingerprint”, which can be seen throughout most of the author’s works. Suzan Lori Parks displays a very prominent, and impactful fingerprint. Her stories are always pushing the limits of some cultural, social, or emotional boundary. She is overall a visionary, and this distinct empowering theme can be found in most works throughout her literary canon. For example, in her playwright Topdog/ Underdog, which reworks the ways of characters from her play The America Play (1993), she tells the tale of Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth in a slightly different way than our history books do. Suzan Lori Parks wrote this

The recliner is extended to its maximum horizontal position and Lincoln lies there asleep. He wakes with a start. He is horrific, bleary eyed and hungover, in his full Lincoln regalia. He takes a deep breath, realizes where he is and reclines again, going back to sleep. Booth comes in full of swagger. He slams the door trying to wake his brother who is dead to the world. He opens the door and slams it again. This time Lincoln wakes up, as hungover and horrid as before. Booth swaggers about, his moves are exaggerated, rooster-like. He walks round and round Lincoln making sure his brother sees

Bringing the attention towards Parks’ stylistic fingerprint, and writing about not-so-socially-acceptable topics, Shawn Garrett writes that “many African-American audience members and critics were nervous, and even angry, about the way Parks told the story.” And some critics argued that the portrayal of Saartjie Baartman in the play actually objectifies the colonizers, rather than the intended focus being the heroine. But regardless of the people who opposed the work, Parks displayed a very unique perspective on the femininity and sexuality of African American women.

In scene thirty of this play write, The Venus herself singsongs “She gained fortune and fame by not wearin uh scrap hidin only thuh privates that lipped inner lap.”. Parks uses dysphemism as a stylistic technique here, which is defined as the exact opposite as a euphemism. She chooses to use negative expressions instead of positive, or inoffensive ones to portray Baartman’s complex disposition, but also to display the sovereignty of both African American woman, and men alike.

Following act thirty one, The Brother and The Man begin to talk about Saartjie Baartman:

“THE BROTHER: Shes