Product Description: This Companion provides an original and authoritative survey of twentieth-century American drama studies, written by some of the best scholars and critics in the field. * Balances consideration of canonical material with discussion of works by previously marginalized playwrights * Includes studies of leading dramatists, such as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill and Gertrude Stein * Allows readers to make new links between particular plays and playwrights * Examines the movements that framed the century, such as the Harlem Renaissance, lesbian and gay drama, and the solo performances of the 1980s and 1990s * Situates American drama within larger discussions about American ideas and culture
When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother’s seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy’s father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly Mr. Pancks, the reluctant rent-collector of Bleeding Heart Yard, and the tipsily garrulous Flora Finching, to Merdle, an unscrupulous financier, and the bureaucratic Barnacles in the Circumlocution Office. A masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens’s maturity.Audio file format: mp3
The history of European drama began at the festivals of Dionysus in ancient Athens, where tragedy, satyr-drama and comedy were performed. Understanding this background is vital for students of classical, literary and theatrical subjects, and Alan H. Sommerstein's accessible study is the ideal introduction. The book begins by looking at the social and theatrical contexts and different characteristics of the three genres of ancient Greek drama. It then examines the five main dramatists whose works survive - Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander - discussing their styles, techniques and ideas, and giving short synopses of all their extant plays.
How can teachers incorporate drama into the curriculum? What activities are especially successful? How do teachers know when students are learning with and about drama? Teachers who are new to drama, or those wishing to refresh their knowledge and ideas will find practical answers and guidance in this important book. There has been renewed interest in the US, UK, and Australia on the subject of planning, implementing and evaluating drama work. With the range of activities, strategies and techniques provided, this text will prove invaluable to secondary school teachers.
Exploring the Language of Drama: From Text to Context
Added by: dovesnake | Karma: 1384.51 | Fiction literature | 4 October 2008
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Focusing on the characterization of speech as a form of action, Exploring the Language of Drama introduces students to the stylistic analysis of drama. Here, some of the world's leading scholars demonstrate the importance of analyzing the text of drama rather than focusing on performance, presenting their approaches in an engaging and accessible style. The essays employ techniques from language analysis (specifically discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics and pragmatic) to explore the language of plays, looking at how different theories and approaches can be used to help us understand characterization in dialogue, the cognitive patterns that support the narrative and discourse of drama, and the basic mechanisms of conversation in dramatic dialogue. Each chapter ends in a summary with follow-up exercises, and offers practical advice on how to analyze a play extract and write it up as an assignment.
