Realism and the American Dramatic Tradition

by Demastes, William W.

• ISBN13: 9780817308377
• ISBN10: 0817308377
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

Any review of 20th-century American theatre invariably leads to the term realism. Yet despite the strong tradition of theatrical realism on the American stage, the term is frequently misidentified, and the practices to which it refers are often attacked as monolithically tyrannical, restricting the potential of the American national theatre. This book reconsiders realism on the American stage by addressing the great variety and richness of the plays that form the American theatre canon. By reconsidering the form and revisiting many of the plays that contributed to the realist tradition, the authors provide the opportunity to apprise strengths often overlooked by previous critics. The volume traces the development of American dramatic realism from James A. Herne, the "American Ibsen," to currently active contemporaries such as Sam Shepard, David Mamet, and Marsha Norman. This frank assessment, in sixteen original essays, reopens a critical dialog too long closed. Essays include: American Dramatic Realisms, Viable Frames of Thought The Struggle for the Real--Interpretive Con§ict, Dramatic Method, and the Paradox of Realism The Legacy of James A. Herne: American Realities and Realisms Whose Realism? Rachel Crothers's Power Struggle in the American Theatre The Provincetown Players' Experiments with Realism Servant of Three Masters: Realism, Idealism, and "Hokum" in American High Comedy

Table of Contents

Preface: American Dramatic Realisms, Viable Frames of Thought	p. ix
Introduction: The Struggle for The Real--Interpretive Conflict, Dramatic Method, and the Paradox of Realism	p. 1
Notes	p. 15
The Legacy of James A. Herne: American Realities and Realisms	p. 18
Notes	p. 35
Whose Realism? Rachel Crothers's Power Struggle in the American Theatre	p. 37
Notes	p. 51
The Provincetown Players' Experiments with Realism	p. 53
Notes	p. 67
Servant of Three Masters: Realism, Idealism, and "Hokum" in American High Comedy	p. 71
Notes	p. 89
Remembering the Disremembered: Feminist Realists of the Harlem Renaissance	p. 91
Notes	p. 103
Eugene O'Neill and Reality in America	p. 107
Notes	p. 120
"Odets, Where is Thy Sting?" Reassessing the "Playwright of the Proletariat"	p. 123
Notes	p. 137
Thornton Wilder, the Real, and Theatrical Realism	p. 139
Notes	p. 153
Into the Foxhole: Feminism, Realism, and Lillian Hellman	p. 156
Notes	p. 168
Tennessee Williams's "Personal Lyricism": Toward an Androgynous Form	p. 172
Notes	p. 187
Arthur Miller: Revisioning Realism	p. 189
Margins in the Mainstream: Contemporary Women Playwrights	p. 203
Notes	p. 216
The Limits of African-American Political Realism: Baraka's Dutchman and Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	p. 218
Notes	p. 233
Anti-Theatricality and American Ideology: Mamet's Performative Realism	p. 235
Notes	p. 252
The Hurlyburly Lies of the Causalist Mind: Chaos and the Realism of Rabe and Shepard	p. 255
Notes	p. 274
Selected Bibliography	p. 275
Contributors	p. 279
Index	p. 283
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