The Cambridge companion to Edward Albee / edited by Stephen Bottoms.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bottoms, Stephen J. (Stephen James), 1968-

Series:

Cambridge companions to literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Albee, Edward, 1928-2016--Criticism and interpretation.

Albee, Edward.

Albee, Edward, 1928-2016.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xxi, 263 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Summary:

Edward Albee, perhaps best known for his acclaimed and infamous 1960s drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, is one of America's greatest living playwrights. Now in his seventies, he is still writing challenging, award-winning dramas. This collection of new essays on Albee, which includes contributions from the leading commentators on Albee's work, brings fresh critical insights to bear by exploring the full scope of the playwright's career, from his 1959 breakthrough with The Zoo Story to his most recent Broadway success, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (2002). The contributors include scholars of both theatre and English literature, and the essays thus consider the plays both as literary texts and as performed drama. The collection considers a number of Albee's lesser-known and neglected works, provides a comprehensive introduction and overview, and includes an exclusive, original interview with Mr. Albee, on topics spanning his whole career.

Contents:

1 Introduction: The man who had three lives / Stephen Bottoms 1

2 Albee's early one-act plays: "A new American playwright from whom much is to be expected" / Philip C. Kolin 16

3 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Toward the marrow / Matthew Roudane 39

4 "Withered age and stale custom": Marriage, diminution, and sex in Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance, and Finding the Sun / John M. Clum 59

5 Albee's 3 1/2: The Pulitzer plays / Thomas P. Adler 75

6 Albee's threnodies: Box-Mao-Box, All Over, The Lady from Dubuque, and Three Tall Women / Brenda Murphy 91

7 Minding the play: Thought and feeling in Albee's "hermetic" works / Gerry McCarthy 108

8 Albee's monster children: Adaptations and confrontations / Stephen Bottoms 127

9 "Better alert than numb": Albee since the eighties / Christopher Bigsby 148

10 Albee stages Marriage Play: Cascading action, audience taste, and dramatic paradox / Rakesh H. Solomon 164

11 "Playing the cloud circuit": Albee's vaudeville show / Linda Ben-Zvi 178

12 Albee's The Goat: Rethinking tragedy for the 21st century / J. Ellen Gainor 199

13 "Words; words...They're such a pleasure." (An Afterword) / Ruby Cohn 217

14 Borrowed time: An interview with Edward Albee / Stephen Bottoms 231.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-258) and index.

ISBN:

0521834554

0521542332

OCLC:

58843134