On Susan Glaspell's Trifles and ""A Jury of Her Peers

Martha C. Carpentier is a professor of twentieth-century literature at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, USA. She is co-founder, current president, and webmaster of the International Susan Glaspell Society. She lives in Annandale, New Jersey. Emeline Jouve is an assistant professor of American Literature and Culture at Champollion University and Toulouse Jean-Jaurès University, France. She is the author of several articles on American drama and theater and is the editor of “Staging Mobility in the United-States” for the online journal Miranda (2011) and the co-editor of “American Memories” for the forthcoming online journal FRAMESPA. She lives in Toulouse, France.

Table of Contents


Introduction: An Iconic Work at 100 Years (Martha C. Carpentier and Emeline Jouve)

Part I: Scholars’ Voices

Forensic Science and the Aesthetics of Affect in “A Jury of Her Peers” (Catherine Q. Forsa)

Seeing, Looking, Pointing: A Linguistic Reading of Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” (Marie-Pierre ­Maechling-Mounie)

Silent Partners: The “Trifling” Nature of Language in the Theatre of Susan Glaspell and Samuel Beckett (Linda ­Ben-Zvi)

Susan Glaspell’s Radicalization of Women’s Crime Fiction: Female Reading Strategies from Anna Katharine Green to Sara Paretsky (Ilka Saal and Mareike Dolata)

Powerful Gazes: The Right to Look in Film Adaptations of Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” (Noelia ­Hernando-Real)

Susan Glaspell’s Gendered Detectives: Suspense and the Threat to Masculine Identity in Radio and Screen Adaptations from 1930 to 1961 (Drew Eisenhauer)

Part II: Practitioners’ Voices

Interviews

Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” on Film: Interview with Filmmakers Sally Heckel and Pamela Gaye Walker (Sharon Friedman)

Producing Susan Glaspell’s Plays: Interview with Founders of the Orange Tree Theatre, Sam Walters and Auriol Smith (Barbara Ozieblo)

Trifles in Production at the Orange Tree Theatre, 2008: Interview with Director Helen Leblique (Barbara Ozieblo)

Adaptations / Creations

Sometimes I Sing: Freeing the Voice of Minnie Wright in Trifles (Milbre Burch)

From Dramatic Time to Operatic Time: Creating an Opera Libretto from the Play Trifles (John F. McGrew and John G. Bilotta)

Sometimes I Sing: An Original Dramatic Monolgue Inspired by Trifles (Milbre Burch)

Trifles: An Original Operatic Libretto (John F. McGrew)

Bibliography

About the Contributors

Index