by John G. Demaray (1998)
The design, staging allusions and symbolism of The Tempest are here freshly reconsidered in light of the drama's historical and theatrical milieu. Demaray maintains that Shakespeare, in composing this play, was not reverting to the "academic" dramatic structures, themes and character types of his early career, but was instead forging from different theatrical traditions a new kind of experimental drama. The Tempest, then, draws upon the European and English spectacle, pastoral, "romance" and dramatic traditions; it emphasizes reformist open symbolism rather than the classical iconography of Ben Jonson; and it points the way to the stylized "heroic" dramas of the Restoration with their exotic themes and staged scenic illusions. Shakespeare and the Spectacles of Strangeness pays close attention to genre, structure and issues of printing and textual scholarship. Demaray examines the First Folio printings of The Tempest and of printings of drama, masques, balets de cour, spectacle productions and stage documents. On the basis of these primary documents, Demaray is able to show the influence of the conventions of court presentations on Shakespeare's theatrical references, and to reveal new accounts of the imaginative significance of stage illusions designed by Inigo Jones in the early 1600s.
par Gérard Gengembre
A travers l'études de seize drames romantiques, Gérard Gengembre donne à lire toute la diversité et la richesse d'un genre nouveau dont la dimension subversive n'échappa guère aux contemporains de Hugo, Musset, Dumas ou Vigny. Cette écriture libérée n'en finit pas aujourd'hui de secouer nos habitudes de lecteurs et de spectateurs.
David Krasner
The history of African American performance and theatre is a topic that few scholars have closely studied or discussed as a critical part of American culture. In this fascinating interdisciplinary volume, David Krasner reveals such a history to be a tremendously rich one, focusing particularly on the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. The fields of history, black literary theory, cultural studies, performance studies, and postcolonial theory are utilized in an examination of several major productions. In addition, Krasner looks at the aesthetic significance of African American performers on the American stage and the meaning of the technique entitled "cakewalking."
Dennis Washburn
"Dennis Washburn traces the changing character of Japanese national identity in the works of six major authors: Ueda Akinari, Natsume Soseki, Mori Ogai, Yokomitsu Riichi, Ooka Shohei, and Mishima Yukio. By focusing on certain interconnected themes, Washburn illuminates the contradictory desires of a nation trapped between emulating the West and preserving the traditions of Asia." "A unique combination of intellectual history and critical literary analysis, Translating Mount Fuji recounts the evolution of a conflict that inspired remarkable literary experimentation and achievement."--BOOK JACKET
Chris Anderson
"Taking the position that style has value in its own right, that language forms a major component of the story that a nonfiction writer has to tell, [Chris] Anderson anaylzes the work of America's foremost practioners of New Journalism -- Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and Joan Didion."--Jacket.