Restoration stage comedies and Hollywood remarriage films : in conversation with Stanley Cavell / by Elizabeth Kraft.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kraft, Elizabeth, author.

Series:

British literature in context in the long eighteenth century

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--Restoration, 1660-1700--History and criticism.

English drama.

English drama (Comedy)--History and criticism.

English drama (Comedy).

Screwball comedy films--United States--History and criticism.

Screwball comedy films.

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.).

English drama--Restoration.

United States.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

viii, 253 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2017.

Summary:

In Restoration Stage Comedies and Hollywood Remarriage Films, Elizabeth Kraft brings the canon of Restoration comedy into the conversation initiated by Stanley Cavell in his book Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Before there could be imagined remarriages of the sort Cavell documents, there had to be imagined marriages of equality. Such imagined marriages were first mapped out on the Restoration stage by witty pairs such as Harriet and Dorimant, Millamant and Mirabell, and Alithea and Harcourt who are precursors of the central couples in films such as Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Lady Eve. In considering the Restoration comedy canon in one-on-one discourse with the Hollywood remarriage comedy canon, Kraft demonstrates the indebtedness of the twentieth-century films to the Restoration dramatic texts-and the philosophical richness of both canons as they explore the nature and significance of marriage as pursuit of moral perfectionism. This book will be of interest to specialists in Restoration drama and film scholars. Book jacket.

Contents:

Prologue: the reason and the rhyme

Something from nothing: marriage, conversation, and the tragicomic plot

The thin man of mode

Whippoorwills, gypsies, and fantasies of the night: Aphra Behn's The rover and Frank Capra's It happened one night

Luck, be a lady: Aphra Behn, Preston Sturges, and the ethics of genre

Playing and not playing: William Wycherley's The country wife and Howard Hawks's Bringing up baby

Forgotten men: William Wycherley's The plain dealer and Gregory la Cava's My man Godfrey

Provisos and reprieves: William Congreve's The way of the world and Howard Hawks's His girl friday

Happily ever after? the awful truth about careless husbands

Epilogue: hope springs eternal.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781472484581

1472484584

OCLC:

961251590