Description
Book SynopsisWith a focus on twentieth-century work, this book offers a new understanding of what text can do in theater. Written for scholars and students of modern drama, theater studies, modernist literature, and critical theory, it revises dominant views of Henry James, Gertrude Stein, Samuel Beckett, Theodor Adorno, and contemporary theater artists.
Trade Review'In short, the achievement of Jarcho's book is that it is not only a complex and challenging piece of scholarship that probes into the underappreciated potential of theatrical writing, but also serves as an invaluable model for scholars looking to renegotiate the place of theater both beyond and beside drama in the contemporary academy.' Chris Corbo, ASAP/Journal
'A review this short cannot do justice to the intricacies of Jarcho's analysis here and throughout Writing and the Modern Stage. Backed by its author's extensive knowledge of drama, performance, and critical theory, Jarcho's book offers a powerful counter-argument to those who see writing as something that theatre overcomes in order to achieve an authentic presentness.' Stanton B. Garner, Jr, Modern Drama
'This book is a testament to the importance of scholarly work that not only considers theatre as one of many manifestations in the large bubbling pot of cultural production but also attends to the intricacies of medial specificity.' Eleanor Skimin, Theatre Survey
Table of ContentsPart I. Modernism's Negative Theatrics: 1. Introduction: negative theatrics; 2. 'Something stranger yet': theatrical distractions in Henry James and Gertrude Stein; 3. 'Gesture towards the universe': theater as utopia in Waiting for Godot; Part II. Beyond the Present: Playwrights at the Turn of the Millennium: 4. Introduction: staging writing today; 5. The promise of 'playwriting': Suzan-Lori Parks; 6. 'Small, fierce creatures': Mac Wellman's auratic theater.
