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Back The Darker Face of the Earth
Chapters (27)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Half-Title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Dedication
  7. Cast
  8. Prologue
  9. Act One
  10. Scene 2
  11. Scene 3
  12. Scene 4
  13. Scene 5
  14. Scene 6
  15. Scene 7
  16. Scene 8
  17. Act Two
  18. Scene 2
  19. Scene 3
  20. Scene 4
  21. Scene 5
  22. Scene 6
  23. Scene 7
  24. Scene 8
  25. An Interview with Rita Dove
  26. Biographical Note
  27. Back Cover

DOVE’S REVISION

  • What does it mean that our “Oedipus” figure is carried off in triumph in the end?
  • Does this play still end tragically? How?
  • While there are certainly many slave narratives yet to be told, this is not the first work of literature to depict the slave experience. Why does Dove historicize her work in this way?

ANALOGIES TO CONTEMPORARY LIFE

  • Are there analogies to be drawn between the play to contemporary African-American life?
  • What about African-American culture—its traditions, its history, its rituals—is Dove trying to represent?

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

  • In what ways does the destructive power of privilege become exposed in the play?
  • Is Amalia a victim or an oppressor? How is she both?
  • Are there connections to be drawn between her fate and her son’s?
  • To what extent are the economics of slaveholding—as well as the economics of marriage—operant as insidious “fates” in the play?
  • In what ways is the world of the plantation a microcosm for the world beyond its gates—as well as our own world, today?

POWER REVERSALS

  • What are we to make of the power reversals in the play, e.g., of the fact that our father figures (Hector and Louis) are both ineffectual, if not mad?
  • Why does Dove invert race and gender power relationships in the world of this play?
  • Is it any less insidious when Amalia claims Augustus’s body sexually than when male slaveowners would rape their female slaves?

DESIGNING THE PLAY

  • How would you design a production of this play?
  • Could it be cast cross-racially?

FURTHER TOPICS for discussion and exploration

  • Sexism/racism
  • Use of offstage characters
  • Significance of the play’s final scene/final image
  • Experimentation (either in form or theme)
  • Parents and children
  • The use of songs
  • Fate/the ‘curse’
  • Sexuality
  • Coming of age
  • Revolution
  • Interracial relationships
  • Religion

II. English 20: Exposition and Argument

Taught by Marjorie Rubright, at the time Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Missouri-Columbia in Columbia, Missouri.

Research Assignment: Dove’s play treats as themes a wealth of historical topics that students enjoy exploring. This assignment begins with a close reading of the play and then requires significant research into some aspect of America’s history with slavery. The paper asks the students to return to the play and to bring their research to bear on their own careful analysis of one of the themes in The Darker Face of the Earth.

A. CHOOSING A TOPIC

Sample Topics

  • voodoo
  • slave songs
  • important rites and rituals of slaves
  • education of slaves
  • sexual relations between slaves and masters
  • interracial children born into slavery
  • underground railroad

By no means is this list exhaustive. Your reading should engender further topics.

Write a one paragraph response to the following questions: