The drama of marriage : gay playwrights--straight unions from Oscar Wilde to the present / John M. Clum.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clum, John M.

Series:

Palgrave studies in theatre and performance history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--Male authors--History and criticism.

English drama.

American drama--Male authors--History and criticism.

American drama.

Marriage in literature.

Gay men's writings, American--History and criticism.

Gay men's writings, American.

Gay men's writings, English--History and criticism.

Gay men's writings, English.

American drama--Male authors.

Male authors.

Physical Description:

230 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Summary:

Do marriage fail because couples fail or because marriage itself is impossible? Is true understanding between two people possible? Is monogamy unrealistic? The Drama of Marriage is a study of performances of marriage in modern and contemporary. British and American drama. Paradoxically, at a time when theatre was both popular entertainment and high culture many of the most commercially and artistically successful plays about marriage were written by homosexual men (some of whom had a very different understanding of the word gay). Many of these playwrights tries in their private lives to negotiate some sort of same sex partnership in a period when legal sanctions against homosexuality were Draconian. Beginning with Oscar Wilde, Clum focuses on some of the most successful British and American palywrights of the past century. The writers have become as much a part of gay history as theatre history, including: Somerset-Maugham, Noel Coward, Terence Rattigan, Emlyn Williams, Clyde Fitch, George Kelly, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, and Edward Albee. The relationship between how these men tried to live and love outside the law and the plays they wrote about better sexual marriage continues to impact contemporary gay playwrights and the depiction of marriage. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: the drama of marriage

Edward Carpenter and Oscar Wilde: ideal and real marriage

Somerset Maugham's inconstant spouses

Love or marriage: Sir Noel Coward and Sir Terrence Rattigan

Emlyn Williams: growing into marriage

Clyde Fitch and George Kelly: spunky American wives and domestic monsters

1950s marriages sweet and sour: Tennessee Williams and William Inge

Edward Albee: marriage as vaudeville

Gay playwrights, gay husbands, gay history.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230338401

0230338402

OCLC:

738335636