The vital lie : reality and illusion in modern drama / Anthony S. Abbott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abbott, Anthony S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Drama--19th century--History and criticism.

Drama.

Drama--20th century--History and criticism.

Illusion in literature.

Reality in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 239 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1989.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Vital Lie is the first book to examine the reality-illusion conflict in modern drama from Ibsen to present-day playwrights. The book questions why vital lies, lies necessary for life itself, are such an obsessive concern for playwrights of the last hundred years. Using the work of fifteen playwrights, Abbott seeks to discover if modern playwrights treat illusions as helpful or necessary to life, or as signals of sicknesses from which human beings need to be cured.

Contents:

Contents; Preface: The Vital Lie; 1. Reality, Illusion, and the More Abundant Life; Part One: The Hegelians; 2. Henrik Ibsen; 3. August Strindberg; 4. Anton Chekhov; 5. George Bernard Shaw; 6. John Millington Synge; Part Two: Lost and Found; 7. Luigi Pirandello; 8. Bertolt Brecht; 9. T. S. Eliot; 10. Eugene O'Neill; 11. Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams; Part Three: Absurdism and After; 12. Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco; 13. Edward Albee; 14. Harold Pinter; 15. Theater as Reality/Reality as Theater; 16. Reality and the Hero; Notes; Bibliography; Permissions; Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-233) and index.

ISBN:

0-8173-8253-4

OCLC:

424520962