DRAMATISTAS LITERARY JOURNALIST: THE RHETORICAL STRATEGIES OF ANNA DEAVERE SMITH’S ONE-WOMAN PLAYS.

This paper examines Anna Deavere Smith’s documentary drama in relation to the literary journalism tradition, paying attention to the author’s primary impulse in employing the techniques and mode of writing. Then, focusing on the genre of her choice, theatre, it examines how her performance of the text subverts and variegates the tradition in nonfiction writing, by simultaneously reminding the audience of the text’s non-fictionality and the ultimate fictionality of any creative work. It is a testimony against the ultimate unobtainability of absolute truth, which is also the motivation of documentary theatre—to question reality and serve as catalyst for social action.