著者

伊藤 ゆかり 伊藤 ゆかり ITO Yukari イトウ ユカリ Ito Yukari

出版者

山梨県立大学

雑誌

山梨国際研究 山梨県立大学国際政策学部紀要 = Yamanashi glocal studies : bulletin of Faculty of Glocal Policy Management and Communications (ISSN:21874336)

巻号頁・発行日

no.15, pp.1-10, 2020

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Venus is one of the history plays by Suzan-Lori Parks. Its protagonist is Saartjie Baartman; known as the Hottentot Venus, she was taken from South Africa to London and put on a freak show in 1810 to die in Paris in 1816. Her remains were displayed at a museum in Paris until 1976. She symbolizes the victimization of African women in the colonial period. However, Parks's play reveals the possibility of the Venus being an accomplice, and has evoked much controversy. Venus is the play of fragmentation. Parks fragments the story of The Venus into 31 scenes. With a play-within-play and historical information inserted, the audience cannot grasp the play as a whole. The figure of The Venus is fragmented into several ones, too, from a girl in Africa, a freak on the show, to the medical object. Because of the fragmentation, what the audience can see on the stage is a ghost in history. At the same time, the audience is also fragmented into the voyeur, the spectator, and the accomplice. At the end of the play, The Venus asks for a kiss, that is, affectionate physical contact which a ghost could not wish for.