Writing Performances: The Stages of Dorothy L. Sayers

ISBN-13: 9781349732487 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 199 str.

Crystal Downing; C. Downing

Opis

Employing the insight of contemporray performance theory, "Writing Performances" argues that Dorothy L. Sayers anticipated by decades the postmodern ironizing of Englightenment sensibilities--not in spite of her Anglo-Catholic convictions, but because of them.

Recenzje

"Under the trope of 'performance,' Downing deploys a Sayers that is as versatile, elusive, and intriguing as its original must have been. A performing Sayers is an artist, Christian, and thinker who holds together tradition and change, uncertainty and faith, and creativity and discipline. And a performing Sayers is suited for the postmodernist stage where Downing puts her among assorted, current theorists and critics. Both devotees and doubters will find here a Sayers who is a solo performer but also part of an impressive troupe." - Wesley Kort, Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Duke University and author of Place and Space in Modern Fiction (2004)

"Marked by beautiful writing and depth of insight, this book provides an important corrective to previous scholarship on Dorothy L. Sayers. While many students of Sayers have uncritically rendered a flat, one-dimensional version of the writer, Downing presents a beautifully nuanced portrait of the writer, drawn from the many phases and loves of Sayer's life. Downing succeeds since she is so completely attuned to the power of culture and language, not only in Sayers, but in herself as well. The result is a work of art." - Richard T. Hughes, author of Myths America Lives By and How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind

Spis treści

Setting the Stage (An Introduction) The Performance Begins Her(e): The Auto/biographical Sayers Identifying Gender(ed) Performances The Performance Builds: Sayers' Architectural Imagination Minding the Performance: Sayers' Literary Criticism The Performing World: Sayers' Unorthodox Orthodoxy Begin Here: For the End(s) of the Performance Encore (A Conclusion)

O autorze

CRYSTAL DOWNING is Associate Professor of English and Film Studies, Messiah College, Pennsylvania, USA.