Theater of the mind : imagination, aesthetics, and American radio drama / Neil Verma.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Verma, Neil.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Radio plays, American--History and criticism--20th century.

Radio plays, American.

Radio broadcasting--United States--History--20th century.

Radio broadcasting.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

pages cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Summary:

For generations, fans and critics have characterized classic American radio drama as a theater of the mind. This book unpacks that characterization by recasting the radio play as an aesthetic object within its unique historical context. Here, Neil Verma applies an array of critical methods to nearly six thousand recordings to produce a vivid new account of radio drama from the Depression to the Cold War.

In this sweeping exploration of dramatic conventions, Verma investigates legendary plays by the likes of Norman Corwin, Lucille Fletcher, and Wyllis Cooper on key programs ranging from The Columbia Workshop, The Mercury Theater on the Air, and Cavalcade of America to Lights Out!, Suspense, and Dragnet to reveal how these programs promoted and evolved a series of models of the imagination.

In Theater of the Mind, Verma not only gives us a new account of the most flourishing form of genre fiction in the mid-twentieth century but also presents a powerful case for the central place of the aesthetics of sound in the history of modern experience. Book jacket.

Contents:

What is the "theater of the mind"?

Radio aesthetics in the late depression, 1937-1945

Dramas of space and time

Producing perspective in radio

Intimate and kaleidosonic styles

Norman Corwin's people's radio

Communication and interiority in 1940s radio, 1941-1950

Honeymoon shocker

Dramas of susceptibility and transmission

Eavesdropper, ventriloquist, signalman

Radio and the postwar mood, 1945-1955

Later than you think?

Just the facts

In trials

Coda: instruction and excavation

Guide to radio programs.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226853505

9780226853512

0226853500

0226853519

OCLC:

752471783