Urban drama : the metropolis in contemporary North American plays / J. Chris Westgate.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Westgate, J. Chris.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American drama--20th century--History and criticism.

American drama.

City and town life in literature.

Space and time in literature.

Theater--United States--History--20th century.

Theater.

United States.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 239 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Summary:

"Identifying an apprehension about the nature and constitution of urbanism in North American plays, Urban Drama examines how cities like New York City and Los Angeles became focal points for identity politics and social justice at the end of the twentieth century. In plays as different as Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight Los Angeles, 1992, and David Henry Hwang's FOB, these concerns became spatialized against the urban environment, suggesting a shift of consciousness toward what critical geography has argued: The social is always spatial. Urban Drama interrogates how this shift informs playwriting in the 1980s and 1990s and inspires new modes of dramatic representation"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note:

Introduction: A Rhetoric of Sociospatial Drama * PART I: ELEMENTS OF URBANISM * "Against the Law in this City": Public Space in New York City *

"City, Bad Place": Architecture & Disorientation in New York City * PART II: ITERATIONS OF URBANISM * "Livin in a Paradise": Suburbanism in Los Angeles *

"Does it Explode?": Ghettoization & Rioting in New York City & Los Angeles *

"Part of the City": Enclaves & Exiles in Los Angeles.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-233) and index.

ISBN:

9780230114531

0230114539

OCLC:

692287916