Susan Keating Glaspell, Inheritors: A Play in Three Acts

Cheryl Black (University of Missouri)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1921

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

“I think I’m an American. And for that reason I think I have something to say about America.” (Madeline Morton, Inheritors, Act 3)

Susan Glaspell’s Inheritors, which premiered at the Provincetown Players’ Playwrights Theatre in Greenwich Village in March 1921, offers a penetrating analysis of the relationship between American ideals and American action from its early nineteenth century westward expansion to the aftermath of World War I.

This epic work includes a number of typical Glaspell themes, including freedom of speech, the struggle of the individual against society, a reconsideration of the past in order to shape a better future, gender and national identity. Although the …

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2864 words

Citation: Black, Cheryl. "Inheritors: A Play in Three Acts". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16002, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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