The Impact of Vietnam War on American Drama

This book aspires to fill the gap in scholarly studies about Vietnam War Theater through examining nine war plays. Within the corpus of Vietnam War plays, three distinctive constellations have been marked: the political impact, the racial impact, and the psychological impact. These constellations form the bulk of the proceeding three chapters. The political constellation includes Megan Terry’s Viet Rock (1967), Arthur Kopit’s Indians (1969), and Danniel Berrigan’s Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1970). This constellation tackles the early works that are written in direct and in an aggressive protest against the war. The racial constellation includes David Rabe’s Streamers (1976), Terrence McNally’s Botticelli (1968), and John Difusco’s Tracers (1980). These plays depict how the Americans regarded the “other” in the Vietnam War. The third constellation probes into the American psyche, which starts to suffer from bitter flashback of memories in the aftermath of the war. Tom Cole’s Medal of Honor Rag (1975), Emily Mann’s Still Life (1980), and Stephen Metcalfe’s Strange Snow (1982) tell the horrific experience of those veterans.