Literary Theory and Criticism

Literary Theory and Criticism
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780486401553

Essential anthology of Poe's critical works reviews works by Dickens, Hawthorne, many others. Includes Theory of Poetry ("The Philosophy of Composition," "The Rationale of Verse," "The Poetic Principle"). Introduction.

Theatre of the Unimpressed

Theatre of the Unimpressed
Author: Jordan Tannahill
Publisher: Coach House Books
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2015-05-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 177056411X

How dull plays are killing theatre and what we can do about it. Had I become disenchanted with the form I had once fallen so madly in love with as a pubescent, pimple-faced suburban homo with braces? Maybe theatre was like an all-consuming high school infatuation that now, ten years later, I saw as the closeted balding guy with a beer gut he’d become. There were of course those rare moments of transcendencethat kept me coming back. But why did they come so few and far between? A lot of plays are dull. And one dull play, it seems, can turn us off theatre for good. Playwright and theatre director Jordan Tannahill takes in the spectrum of English-language drama – from the flashiest of Broadway spectacles to productions mounted in scrappy storefront theatres – to consider where lifeless plays come from and why they persist. Having travelled the globe talking to theatre artists, critics, passionate patrons and the theatrically disillusioned, Tannahill addresses what he considers the culture of ‘risk aversion’ paralyzing the form. Theatre of the Unimpressed is Tannahill’s wry and revelatory personal reckoning with the discipline he’s dedicated his life to, and a roadmap for a vital twenty-first-century theatre – one that apprehends the value of ‘liveness’ in our mediated age and the necessity for artistic risk and its attendant failures. In considering dramaturgy, programming and alternative models for producing, Tannahill aims to turn theatre from an obligation to a destination. ‘[Tannahill is] the poster child of a new generation of (theatre? film? dance?) artists for whom "interdisciplinary" is not a buzzword, but a way of life.’ —J. Kelly Nestruck, Globe and Mail ‘Jordan is one of the most talented and exciting playwrights in the country, and he will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.’ —Nicolas Billon, Governor General's Award–winning playwright (Fault Lines)

On Measure for Measure

On Measure for Measure
Author: Lawrence J. Ross
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
Total Pages: 194
Release: 1997
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780874135930

"That Measure for Measure, a work of the dramatist's maturity, remains the focus of unresolved controversy calls into question the adequacy of Shakespeare criticism to be answerable to "what he hath left us." This book illustrates a way to conduct eclectic and historical criticism capable of manifesting this problematic play's coherence. It closely studies as drama, according to the conventions demonstrably presupposed, the play indicated by the text when construed as Shakespeare's extant provisions for its performance." "Analysis shows that Measure for Measure's principal interest cannot be character as such, but rather the searching play of thought, about a rich nexus of issues radical to our humanity, projected through the staged action it informs. To apprehend it, attention to structure, dramaturgy, and methods of representation is as essential as studying how Shakespeare uses ideas received from his co-creating culture." "Through this study, Measure for Measure emerges as a great play; uniquely daring in conception, scope, and comic purgation; humanely wise and balanced in outlook; brilliant in dramaturgical wit; exhilaratingly entertaining; and perhaps Shakespeare's most sophisticated work, though its coherence has often previously been clouded by misconstrual."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Theatre Criticism

Theatre Criticism
Author: Duška Radosavljevic
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2016-09-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1472577116

The world of theatre criticism is rapidly changing in its form, function and modes of operation in the twenty-first century. The dominance of the internet has led to a growing trend of selfappointed theatre critics and bloggers who are changing the focus and purpose of the discussion around live performance. Even though the blogosphere has garnered suspicion and hostility from some mainstream newspaper critics, it has also provided significant intellectual and ideological challenges to the increasingly conservative profile of the professional critic. This book features 16 commissioned contributions from scholars, arts journalists and bloggers, as well as a small selection of innovative critical practice. Authors from Australia, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Russia, the UK and the US share their perspectives on relevant historical, theoretical and political contexts influencing the development of the discipline, as well as specific aspects of the contemporary practices and genres of theatre criticism. The book features an introductory essay by its editor, Duška Radosavljevic.

The Theory and Analysis of Drama

The Theory and Analysis of Drama
Author: Manfred Pfister
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 1988
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780521423830

Manfred Pfister's book is the first to provide a coherent comprehensive framework for the analysis of plays in all their dramatic and theatrical dimensions. The material on which his analysis is based covers all genres and periods. His approach is systematic rather than historical, combining more abstract categorisations with detailed interpretations of sample texts.

Modern American Drama, 1945-2000

Modern American Drama, 1945-2000
Author: C. W. E. Bigsby
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2000-12-21
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780521794107

New edition of Modern American Drama completes the survey and comes up to 2000.

The Theater of Trauma

The Theater of Trauma
Author: Michael Cotsell
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2005
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780820474663

The Theater of Trauma is a groundbreaking rereading of the relations between psychology and drama in the age of Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, and their many brilliant contemporaries. American modernist Theater of Trauma drew its vision from the psychological investigation of trauma and its consequences - among them hysteria and dissociation - made by French and American psychiatrists such as the great Pierre Janet, Alfred Binet, William James, Morton Prince, and W.E.B. Du Bois; the European and American «dissociationist culture» that developed around their work; and the resulting trauma of World War I. American dramatists' deep resistance to Freud's suppression of trauma challenges the equation of Freud and modernism that has become commonplace in modernist criticism.

Seneca's Drama

Seneca's Drama
Author: Norman T. Pratt
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1983
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780807815557

With insight and clarity, Norman Pratt makes available to the general reader an understanding of the major elements that shaped Seneca's plays. These he defines as Neo-Stoicism, declamatory rhetoric, and the chaotic, violent conditions of Senecan society. Seneca's drama shows the nature of this society and uses freely the declamatory rhetorical techniques familiar to any well-educated Roman. But the most important element, Pratt argues, is Neo-Stoicism, including technical aspects of this philosophy that previously have escaped notice. With these ingredients Seneca transformed the themes and characters inherited from Greek drama, casting them in a form that so radically departs from the earlier drama that Seneca's plays require a different mode of criticism. "The greatest need in the criticism of this drama is to understand its legitimacy as drama of a new kind in the anicent tradition," Pratt writes. "It cannot be explained as an inferior imitation of Greek tragedy because, though inferior, it is not imitative in the strict sense of the word and has its own nature and motivation." Pratt shows the functional interrelationship among philosophy, rhetoric, and "society" in Seneca's nine plays and assesses the plays' dramatic qualities. He finds that however melodramatic the plays may seem to the modern reader, Seneca's own career as Nero's mentor, statesman, and spokesman was scarcely less tumultuous than the lives of his characters. When the Neo-Stoicism and rhetoric of the plays are charged with Seneca's own tortured, passionate life, Pratt concludes, "The result is inevitably melodrama, melodrama of such energy and force that it changed the course of Western drama." Originally published in 1983. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

The Drama of the Gifted Child

The Drama of the Gifted Child
Author:
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2008-12-15
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0786743611

This “rare and compelling” (New York Magazine) bestseller examines childhood trauma and the enduring effects it has on an individual's management of repressed anger and pain. Why are many of the most successful people plagued by feelings of emptiness and alienation? This wise and profound book has provided millions of readers with an answer--and has helped them to apply it to their own lives. Far too many of us had to learn as children to hide our own feelings, needs, and memories skillfully in order to meet our parents' expectations and win their "love." Alice Miller writes, "When I used the word 'gifted' in the title, I had in mind neither children who receive high grades in school nor children talented in a special way. I simply meant all of us who have survived an abusive childhood thanks to an ability to adapt even to unspeakable cruelty by becoming numb.... Without this 'gift' offered us by nature, we would not have survived." But merely surviving is not enough. The Drama of the Gifted Child helps us to reclaim our life by discovering our own crucial needs and our own truth.

Literary and Cultural Criticism from the Nineteenth Century

Literary and Cultural Criticism from the Nineteenth Century
Author: Joanne Shattock
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 479
Release: 2021-11-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000438163

This collection of primary sources examines literary and cultural criticism over the long nineteenth century. Volume 3 of 4 explores the subject of Authorship, Journalism and the Nineteenth-Century Press. This volume will be of great interest to students of literary history.