George Bernard Shaw and the socialist theatre

A biographically based study of George Bernard Shaw and his milieu, this book offers a non-laudatory reading of Shaw's economic practices and theories, augments feminist and postcolonial critiques that preoccupy the study of literary history in the 1990s, and provides a long overdue revisionist reading of Shaw for an undergraduate readership. It traces the theatrical and political influences on Shaw from his earliest days in London; tracks his interest in socialism as an activist and author of tracts, novels, and plays emphasizing certain polemical traits; and follows his career as a major literary figure into the mid-20th century. The overarching themes of theatre and politics are narrated in relation to attempts by Shaw and his contemporaries to identify an audience and aesthetic for socialist theatre. The bibliographic essay that concludes the book is particularly helpful for student readers, who can benefit from a manageably-sized orientation to the mountain of Shavian scholarship.

Author Notes

TRACY C. DAVIS is Associate Professor of Theatre and English at Northwestern University. She has contributed to numerous books and anthologies, and is the author of Actresses as Working Women: Their Social Identity in Victorian Culture (1991).

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Intended "more as a history of ideas and cultural representations" than as a conventional biocritical study along the lines of Michael Holroyd and others, this suggestive work explores the long, intimate relationship between Shaw, socialism, and the evolving English theater. At once "intrigued and exasperated" by Shaw's iconoclasm, polemics, and exaggerated self-promotion, the author perceives the celebrated playwright as an inventive, engaged artist who, despite some well-known excesses, "cannot fail to inspire wonder" in any audience that contemplates the skill, range, and prescience of his total output. What distinguishes this effort from other recent interpretations of Shaw, apart from its emphasis on theatrical trends and innovations, is a reading of the dramatist in the context of feminist, postmodernist, and postcolonial concerns--perspectives that do not often receive the attention they deserve. Chapter notes and illustrations, together with a chronology, index, and bibliographic essay, complete this provocative undertaking, which sees in Shaw a once formidable presence ultimately "eclipsed" by accelerated social change and "challenges more profound" than he could imagine. For college and university libraries. H. I. Einsohn; Middlesex Community-Technical College

Abbreviations

Preface

Introduction

Shaw Before Playwriting Apprenticeship as a Playwright Shaw's Theatrical Heyday Responses to the Twentieth Century Chronology of Shaw's Life and Writings

Bibliographical Essay

Index

Mevcut:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Özet

Özet

Author Notes

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Table of Contents