«...this is a lively, thorough and handsomely produced volume. Footnotes, clear type and a useful index enhance the value of the publication, which deserves a place in every scholarly library.» (Forum for Modern Language Studies) «Almost all theses papers are based on extensive research, which enables them, despite their brevity, to pack in a remarkable amount of data. Thanks no doubt to careful editing, they are concise and well presented. Rather than a comprehensive survey, they offer a variety of unexpected insights into their subject, providing both solid information and stimulus for further enquiry. [...] Any individual or institution with an interest in Austrian theatre (or indeed theatre in general) should acquire the volume.» (Ritchie Robertson, Modern Language Review) «Taken as a whole, this collection of essays offers a solid and broad-based introduction to Viennese theater, with interesting and highly readable articles from some of the top scholars in the field. In addition, many individual articles offer insightful and new interpretations of well-known dramatists and their works. The volume successfully achieves its stated aim to relate text with context - theater with political scene - thereby making a significant contribution to extant scholarship.» (Linda C. DeMeritt, Modern Austrian Literature) «...the volume is a fine and useful addition to the field, a mine of interesting facts.» (Robert Pyrah, Compass)
Contents: Peter Branscombe: The Beginnings of Parody in Viennese Popular Theatre - Ian F. Roe: The Reception of Raimund's Moisasurs Zauberfluch - Hans Höller: Zur Rhetorik des Sensualismus in Grillparzers Dramen - Birgit Pargner: Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer und das kommerzielle Theater im Wien des 19. Jahrhunderts - F. J. Lamport: History, Myth and Psychology in Libussa and DieNibelungen - Michael Patterson: The Fire in the Ringtheater on 8 December 1881 - Robert Vilain: The Sublime and the Ridiculous: Dramatic Wagner Parodies in Vienna - W. E. Yates: The Rise and Fall of the One-Act-Play - Gilbert Carr: Corridors of Power and Whispered Plots: The Banning of Otto Stoessl's and Robert Scheu's Waare in 1897/1898 - Andrew W. Barker: Interior Monologue, Monodrama and the Palais Stoclet: Marie Pappenheim's Libretto for Schoenberg's Erwartung - Janet Stewart: Egon Friedell and Alfred Polgar: Cabaret in Vienna at the Turn of the Last Century - Emma E. Smith: 'Aber ich hab sie nit kennt, die Weiber': Female Anarchy Unleashed in Karl Schönherr's Der Weibsteufel - Judith Beniston: Max Mell in the First Republic: The Acceptable Face of Catholic Drama? - John Warren: Viennese Theatre Criticism between the Wars - Louise Adey Huish: 'Eine typisch altösterreichisch-ungarische Mischung': The Reception of Horváth's Plays in Vienna, 1931-37 - Stefan Aichhorn: Vineta von Jura Soyfer oder Die Avantgarde auf der Kellerbühne - Ulrike Tanzer: Das Spiel von Geld und Moral. Hugo von Hofmannsthals und Felix Mitterers Jedermann-Bearbeitungen - Osman Durrani: Helmut Qualtinger: The Mouth behind the Fig Leaf - Stefan Krammer: Kein Platz für Helden - Schweigen in Text und Kontext von Thomas Bernhards Heldenplatz - Allyson Fiddler: Theorizing and 'Playing' Sport in Elfriede Jelinek: Some Notes on Ein Sportstück.
The Editors: W. E. Yates (b. 1938), Emeritus Professor in the University of Exeter, is the author of a history of Viennese theatre and monographs on Grillparzer, Nestroy, Schnitzler and Hofmannsthal, and one of the General Editors of the standard edition of Nestroy. Allyson Fiddler (b. 1963) is Senior Lecturer in German at Lancaster University. Her main research interest and publications are in post-war Austrian women's writing. She has published numerous articles on Elfriede Jelinek and a monograph entitled Rewriting Reality: an Introduction to Elfriede Jelinek (1994). John Warren (b. 1935), former Head of German at Oxford Brookes, has published on aspects of theatre between the wars and contributed to and edited symposium papers on Max Reinhardt, the Biedermeier, and Culture and Politics in Austria in the 1930s.