American Playwriting and the Anti-Political Prejudice : Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Perspectives / Nelson Pressley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pressley, Nelson, 1961- author.

Series:

Palgrave studies in theatre and performance history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American drama.

American drama--21st century--History and criticism.

Politics and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Politics and literature.

Literature and society.

History.

United States.

Politics and literature--United States--History--21st century.

Literature and society--United States--History--20th century.

Literature and society--United States--History--21st century.

Politics in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

193 pages ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

Twenty years after Tony Kushner's influential Angels in America seemed to declare a revitalized potency for the popular political play, there is a "No Politics" prejudice undermining US theatre production and writing. The prejudice contributes to a crisis of political representation that can be seen in close readings of recent works by America's foremost dramatists, including David Mamet, Sam Shepard, Arthur Miller, and Wendy Wasserstein. This book explores the largely unrecognized cultural patterns that discourage political playwriting on the contemporary American stage. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: No politics, please, we're American

"Politics"

The case of Kushner

Reception and the anti-political prejudice in America

State of the nation: U.K. and U.S.

American shenanigans

Wendy Wasserstein's Washington

Erasing the playwright

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781137437051

1137437057

OCLC:

879329475