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This interdisciplinary collection of 19 essays addresses violence on the American stage. Topics include the revolutionary period and the role of violence in establishing national identity, violence by and against ethnic groups, and females as perpetrators and victims, as well as state and psychological violence and violence within the family. The book works to assess whether representing violence may cause its cessation, or whether it generates further destruction. Featured playwrights include Susan Glaspell, Sophie Treadwell, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Amiri Baraka, Luis Valdes, Cherrie Moraga, Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Neil LaBute, John Guare, Rebecca Gilman, and Heather MacDonald.
This book brings together the fields of theatre, gender studies, and psychology/sociology in order to explore the relationships between what happens when women engage in violence, how the events and their reception intercept with cultural understandings of gender, how plays thoughtfully depict this topic, and how their productions impact audiences. Truthful portrayals force consideration of both the startling reality of women's violence — not how it's been sensationalized or demonized or sexualized, but how it is — and what parameters, what possibilities, should exist for its enactment in life and live theatre. These women appear in a wide array of contexts: they are mothers, daughters, lovers, streetfighters, boxers, soldiers, and dominatrixes. Who they are and why they choose to use violence varies dramatically. They stage resistance and challenge normative expectations for women. This fascinating and balanced study will appeal to anyone interested in gender/feminism issues and theatre.
The 2015 volume of Theatre History Studies presents a collection of five critical essays examining the intersection of theatre studies and historiography as well as twenty-five book reviews highlighting recent scholarship in this thriving field.
The emotive nature of myth lays the foundation of the research proposed for this trilingual volume. The book provides a thorough and multifaceted study that offers guidelines and models capable of interpreting mythical-emotional phenomena. It represents a major contribution to a more informed understanding of an important part of the writing and art of modernity and post-modernity, as well as cultures and thought of contemporary society.
This first-ever study of rape in modern American drama examines portrayals of rape, raped women and rapists in 36 plays written between 1970 and 2007, the period during which the feminist movement made rape a matter of public discourse. These dramas reveal much about sexuality and masculine and feminine identity in the United States. The author traces the impact of second-wave feminism, antifeminist backlash, third-wave feminism and postfeminism on the dramatic depiction of rape. The prevalence of commonly accepted rape myths--that women who dress provocatively invite sexual assault, for example--is well documented, along with equally frequent examples which dispute these myths.
American Literature in Transition, 1970–1980 examines the literary developments of the twentieth-century's gaudiest decade. For a quarter century, filmmakers, musicians, and historians have returned to the era to explore the legacy of Watergate, stagflation, and Saturday Night Fever, uncovering the unique confluence of political and economic phenomena that make the period such a baffling time. Literary historians have never shown much interest in the era, however - a remarkable omission considering writers as diverse as Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Marilyn French, Adrienne Rich, Gay Talese, Norman Mailer, Alice Walker, and Octavia E. Butler were active. Over the course of twenty-one essays, contributors explore a range of controversial themes these writers tackled, from 1960s' nostalgia to feminism and the redefinition of masculinity to sexual liberation and rock 'n' roll. Other essays address New Journalism, the rise of blockbuster culture, memoir and self-help, and crime fiction - all demonstrating that the Me Decade was nothing short of mesmerizing.
Whether imaginary or based on real events, stories are at the core of any culture. Regardless of their length, their rhetoric strategies, or their style, humans tell stories to each other to express their innermost fears and needs, to establish a point within an argument, or to engage their listeners in a fabricated composition. Stories can also serve other purposes, such as being used for entertainment, for education or for the preservation of certain cultural traits. Storytelling is at the heart of human interaction, and, as such, can foster a dialogic narrative between the person creating the story and their audience. In literature, this dialogue has been traditionally associated with nar...
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An essential introductory textbook that guides students through 300 years of American plays, as well as their remarkable engagement with texts from across the Atlantic. Divided into seven historical periods, Jacqueline Foertsch offers unique overviews of 38 American plays and their reception, from Robert Hunter's Androboros (c.1714) to Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton (2015). Each historical section begins with an overseas play that proved influential to American playwrights in that period, demonstrating to students an astonishing dialogue taking place across the Atlantic. This is an ideal core text for modules on American Drama – or a supplementary text for broader modules on American Literature – which may be offered at the upper levels of an undergraduate literature, drama, theatre studies or American studies degree. In addition it is a crucial resource for students who may be studying American drama as part of a taught postgraduate degree in literature, drama or American studies.