Conflicting Impulses in the Plays of Ntozake Shange

In 1976 for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf exploded upon the stage and established Ntozake Shange as a major force in American theatre. Since that time, she has written at least five other plays, three of which were published in 1981 under the title three pieces. One of the most outstanding features of Shange's dramaturgy to date is a dialectic between the felt constrictions of the social order and the perceived limitlessness of the natural order. On the one hand, there is an awareness of social oppression and commitment to struggle; on the other, there is a desire to transcend or bypass, through music and dance, the limitations of social and human existence. My purpose is to analyze one aspect of this dialectic, an element which Shange terms and to sketch broadly the dimensions of the opposing entity, which I am describing as a will to divinity. The contours, if not the purpose, of this fighting spirit are easily recognizable, while a discussion of the will to divinity, with its heavy allegiance to an African world view, could easily be the subject of a paper in and of itself. By focusing primarily on combat breath, I hope to explain the reason that Shange's plays