Laughter and civility : the theater of Emma Gad / Lynn R. Wilkinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilkinson, Lynn Rosellen, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gad, Emma, 1852-1921--Criticism and interpretation.

Gad, Emma.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 318 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2020]

Summary:

Emma Gad (1852-1921) was a prolific Danish playwright at the turn of the twentieth century. With sparkling prose and witty dialogue, Gad's ambitious and sophisticated theatrical productions raised important and still pressing questions about sexuality and morality-including the status of women in marriage, divorce, same?sex desire, and marital infidelity. Through her plays she engaged with contemporaries like Henrik Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, and George Bernard Shaw, yet she is primarily remembered for her etiquette book, Takt og Tone. Laughter and Civility, the first biographical and scholarly volume to examine and contextualize her dramas, deeply explores how and why influential women are so often excluded from the canon. Lynn R. Wilkinson provides insightful readings into all twenty-five of Gad's plays and demonstrates how writers and intellectuals of the time, including Georg and Edvard Brandes, took her critically acclaimed work seriously. This volume rightfully reinstates Emma Gad's work into the repertory of European drama and is crucial for scholars interested in turn?of?the?century Scandinavian drama, literature, culture, and politics.

Contents:

Introduction: Emma Gad: comedy, feminism, and politics in fin-de-siècle Copenhagen and elsewhere

Etiquette high and low: the faces of Emma Gad

Imagining freedom and equality: Emma Gad's plays of the 1880s

Beyond the morality debate: Emma Gad's plays of the early 1890s

Marriage, motherhood, and solidarity among women: Emma Gad's plays, 1895-1900

The promises of modern life: Gad's plays of the first decade of the twentieth century

Globalization, war, and new technologies: Gad's plays of the 1910s

Conclusion: Emma Gad between past and future.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780299329303

0299329305