The Theatre of D.H. Lawrence : Dramatic Modernist and Theatrical Innovator

ISBN-13: 9781472570376 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 264 str.

James Moran; Patrick Lonergan; Erin Hurley

Opis

This is the first major book-length study for four decades to examine the plays written by D. H. Lawrence, and the first ever book to give an in-depth analysis of Lawrence's interaction with the theatre industry during the early twentieth century. It connects and examines his performance texts, and explores his reaction to a wide-range of theatre (from the sensation dramas of working-class Eastwood to the ritual performances of the Pueblo people) in order to explain Lawrence's contribution to modern drama. F. R. Leavis influentially labelled the writer 'D. H. Lawrence: Novelist'. But this book foregrounds Lawrence's career as a playwright, exploring unfamiliar contexts and manuscripts, and drawing particular attention to his three most successful works: The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, The Daughter-in-Law, and A Collier's Friday Night. It examines how Lawrence's novels are suffused with theatrical thinking, revealing how Lawrence's fictions - from his first published work to the last story that he wrote before his death - continually take inspiration from the playhouse. The book also argues that, although Lawrence has sometimes been dismissed as a restrictively naturalistic stage writer, his overall oeuvre shows a consistent concern with theatrical experiment, and manifests affinities with the dramatic thinking of modernist figures including Brecht, Artaud, and Joyce. In a final section, the book includes contributions from influential theatre-makers who have taken their own cue from Lawrence's work, and who have created original work that consciously follows Lawrence in making working-class life central to the public forum of the theatre stage.

Recenzje

Moran provides a thorough discussion of the working dynamics of [Lawrence's] plays and displays a keen affinity for demonstrating the theatrical dependency of Lawrence's novels. After an introductory overview of Lawrence and his cultural milieu, Moran devotes chapters to Lawrence's transition into playwriting, his difficulties with the genre, specific correlations with his novels, and his maturation as a dramatist. . Replete with notes and an extended bibliography, Moran's study enhances appreciation of an important facet of Lawrence's artistry. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. CHOICE

Spis treści

AcknowledgementsForeword by Sir Richard EyreSynopsisIntroduction. The Significance of Lawrence's Plays: Shifts in Reputation from 1930 to 2014Chapter 1. Writing Lawrence's Plays: Becoming a Dramatist, 1885 to 1910Chapter 2. The Frustration of Staging: Dramatic Struggles, 1911 to 1930Chapter 3. The Drama of Lawrence's Prose Fiction: the Playwright as NovelistChapter 4. Lawrence's Theatrical Development: Realist and Experimentalist CrosscurrentsChapter 5. A Director's Perspective: Peter Gill, in Conversation with James MoranChapter 6. A Playwright's Perspective: Stephen LoweChapter 7. A Screenwriter's Perspective: William IvoryChapter 8. A Postcolonial Perspective: Soudabeh AnanisarabConclusionAppendix: TimelineEndnotesBibliographyIndex

O autorze

James Moran is Head of Drama in the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. His research is primarily concerned with modern anglophone literature, with a particular interest in the theatre of twentieth-century Ireland. One of the main strands of his research explores how revolutionary politics and dramatic literature interact. He is the author of Modernists and the Theatre (Methuen Drama, 2022), The Theatre of D.H. Lawrence (Methuen Drama, 2015) and The Theatre of Sean O'Casey (Methuen Drama, 2013). He has also edited a volume of plays by political radicals such as Thomas MacDonagh and James Connolly (Four Irish Rebel Plays, 2007).