The playwright as thinker / Eric Bentley ; introduction by Richard Gilman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bentley, Eric, 1916-2020.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Drama.

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

Physical Description:

1 online resource (416 p.)

Edition:

4th ed., 1st University of Minnesota Press ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

First published in 1946, The Playwright as Thinker is a classic work of drama criticism that helped create the intellectual environment in which serious American theater would thrive in the second half of the twentieth century. At the time of publishing, most drama critics believed dramatic art deserved no intellectual status; Eric Bentley set out to prove them wrong. Focusing on the canonic playwrights Strindberg, Ibsen, Pirandello, Sartre, and Brecht, Bentley viewed the playwright as thinker, and his survey of over 150 years of dramatic art provided, in essence, an intellectual history of Eu

Contents:

The two traditions of modern drama

Tragedy in modern dress

Tragedy in fancy dress

Wagner and Ibsen : a contrast

Bernard Shaw

Varieties of comic experience

August Strindberg

From Strindberg to Jean-Paul Sartre

From Strindberg to Bertolt Brecht

Broadway, and the alternative.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8166-7491-4

OCLC:

698111708