Joe Orton : a casebook / edited by Francesca Coppa.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Coppa, Francesca.

Series:

Casebooks on modern dramatists ; v. 32.

Casebooks on modern dramatists ; v. 32

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orton, Joe--Criticism and interpretation.

Orton, Joe.

Homosexuality and literature--England--History--20th century.

Homosexuality and literature.

Comedy.

History.

Criticism and interpretation.

England.

Physical Description:

vi, 181 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2003.

Summary:

The story of Joe Orton -- the irreverent working-class playwright who shot to fame in the Swinging London of the 1960s -- captured both the popular and the artistic imagination of his generation. In the years since his murder in 1967, Orton has become a queer icon whose life, as framed in his posthumously-published Diaries, has proved to be as sensational and blackly comic as any of his plays. While writers, dramatists, and filmmakers have already found inspiration in Orton's colorful life story, this casebook comprises the first collection of scholarly criticism to investigate the works, life, and legacy of the controversial playwright. Editor Francesca Coppa, working in close cooperation with the Orton estate, has assembled a comprehensive study that includes contributions from most of the prominent scholars in the field. The essays tackle a broad range of subjects -- from Orton's major plays and recently published early works, to his hilarious Diaries and his status as a famous biographical figure, to an insider's look at the challenges of acting in one of Orton's riotous comedies. As a landmark volume of criticism, Joe Orton: A Casebook promises to be an indispensable resource for students, scholars, and all those fascinated by this shockingly unconventional writer and his contribution to contemporary theater.

Contents:

The Creation of Comedy in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane / D. S. Lawson 15

The Good and Faithful Servant: Orton's Bitter Farce / Maurice Charney 21

You Say You Want a Revolution: Joe Orton's The Erpingham Camp as the Bacchae of the 1960s / Patricia Juliana Smith 27

"What the Butler Did See": Joe Orton and Oscar Wilde / John Bull 45

Sex and Subversion in Jane Austen and Joe Orton / John Halperin 61

A Normal Family: Alternative Communities in the Plays of Joe Orton and Caryl Churchill / Janet E. Gardner 69

Is There a Queer Tradition, and is Orton in it? / Alan Sinfield 85

Orton's Black Camp / Jonathan Dollimore 95

Sensation and Sensibility: Joe Orton's Diaries / Randall Nakayama 99

Saint Joe: Orton as Homosexual Rebel / David Van Leer 109

A Coloured Girl Reading Proust / Simon Shepherd 141

A Conversation with John Alderton and Leonie Orton / Francesca Coppa 155.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-170) and index.

ISBN:

0815336276

OCLC:

49699338