Realism and the American dramatic tradition / edited by William W. Demastes.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Demastes, William W.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Realism in literature.

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

American drama.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (311 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama : The University Alabama Press, 1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Any review of 20th-century American theatre invariably leads to the term realism. Yet despite the strong tradition of theatrical realism on the American stage, the term is frequently misidentified, and the practices to which it refers are often attacked as monolithically tyrannical, restricting the potential of the American national theatre. This book reconsiders realism on the American stage by addressing the great variety and richness of the plays that form the American theatre canon. By reconsidering the form and revisiting many of the plays that contributed to the realist tradition, the au

Contents:

Contents; Preface: American Dramatic Realisms, Viable Frames of Thought / William W. Demastes; 1. Introduction: The Struggle for the Real-Interpretive Conflict, Dramatic Method, and the Paradox of Realism / Brian Richardson; 2. The Legacy of James A. Herne: American Realities and Realisms / Patricia D. Denison; 3. Whose Realism? Rachel Crothers's Power ""Struggle in the American Theatre / Yvonne Shafer; 4. The Provincetown Players' Experiments with Realism / J. Ellen Gainor; 5. Servant of Three Masters: Realism, Idealism, and "Hokum" in American High Comedy / Robert F. Gross

6. Remembering the Disremembered: Feminist Realists of the Harlem Renaissance / Patricia R. Schroeder7. Eugene O'Neill and Reality in America / Frank R. Cunningham; 8. "Odets, Where Is Thy Sting?" Reassessing the "Playwright of the Proletariat" / John W. Frick; 9. Thornton Wilder, the Real, and Theatrical Realism / Christopher J. Wheatley; 10. Into the Foxhole: Feminism, Realism, and Lillian Hellman / Judith E. Barlow; 11. Tennessee Williams's "Personal Lyricism": Toward an Androgynous Form / Thomas P. Adler; 12. Arthur Miller: Revisioning Realism / Brenda Murphy

13. Margins in the Mainstream: Contemporary Women Playwrights / Janet V. Haedicke14. The Limits of African-American Political Realism: Baraka's Dutchman and Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom / Eric Bergesen and William W. Demastes; 15. Anti-Theatricality and American Ideology: Mamet's Performative Realism / Michael L. Quinn; 16. The Hurlyburly Lies of the Causalist Mind: Chaos and the Realism of Rabe and Shepard / William W. Demastes and Michael Vanden Heuvel; Selected Bibliography; Contributors; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8173-8920-2

0-585-22741-1

OCLC:

45727980