Description
Book SynopsisA companion volume to Contradictory characters, this book analyzes the juxtaposition of the tragic and the comic in modern drama.
Table of ContentsPart 1 Smiling at trouble: virgin sacrifice - The wild duck, Henrik Ibsen; frost in the spring air - Spring's awakening, Frank Wedekind; sireless in Russia - Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov; inward journey - The ghost sonata, August Strindberg; playing the role for real - Enrico IV, Luigi Pirandello; summary 1 - comedy in hiding. Part 2 Taking the joke seriously: jest and superjests - Man and superman, Bernard Shaw; dependence day - Ah, wilderness!, Eugene O'Neill; society as a brother - The balcony, Jean Genet; Dionysus in Sussex - The Norman conquests, Alan Ayckbourn; summary 2 - pain in hiding. Part 3 Howling at farce: male heroine - The breast of Tiresias, Guillaume Apollinaire; timid exhibitionist - Professor Taranne, Arthur Adamov; anything but absurd - Jacques and The chairs, Eugene Ionesco; almighty goad - Acts without words I and II, Samuel Beckett; for sex and empire - Cloud 9, Caryl Churchill; summary 3 - the farcical overlay; conclusion: the playful end.
