"Those Who Wait, Burn": New Penelopes in Plays by Sarah Ruhl, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Naomi Wallace.

This article examines how contemporary American women playwrights Sarah Ruhl, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Naomi Wallace revise the figure of Penelope from Homer's *Odyssey* to challenge traditional patriarchal and war-related gender norms. Through their plays—*Passion Play, Part Three* (2005), *Father Comes Home from the Wars* (2014–2015), and *In the Heart of America* (1994)—these authors dismantle the binary opposition between home front and war front and reimagine Penelope as an active agent who asserts independence, sexual autonomy, and political efficacy. By disrupting Homer's chronological and spatial structures, they highlight the interconnectedness of war and domestic life and critique the idealization of female fidelity, instead portraying women who resist passivity and redefine family and home on their own terms. These feminist revisions emphasize diverse experiences across time, ethnicity, and nationality, underscoring the fallacy of monolithic womanhood and advocating for women's agency in both war and peace.