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As an integral part of his work as a political playwright and dramaturge, Bertolt Brecht concerned himself extensively with the theory of drama. He was convinced that the Aristotelian ideal of audience catharsis through identification with a hero and the resultant experience of terror and pity worked against his goal of bettering society. He did not want his audiences to feel, but to think, and his main theoretical thrusts - 'Verfremdungseffekte' (de-familiarization devices) and epic theater, among others - were conceived in pursuit of this goal. This is the first detailed study in English of Brecht's writings on the theater to take account of works first made available in the recent German edition of his collected works. It offers in-depth analyses of Brecht's canonical essays on the theater from 1930 to the late 1940s and early GDR years. Close readings of the individual essays are supplemented by surveys of the changing connotations within Brecht's dramaturgical oeuvre of key theoretical terms, including epic and anti-Aristotelian theater, de-familiarization, historicization, and dialectical theater. Brecht's distinct contribution to the theorizing of acting and audience response is examined in detail, and each theoretical essay and concept is placed in the context of the aesthetic debates of the time, subjected to a critical assessment, and considered in light of subsequent scholarly thinking. In many cases, the playwright's theoretical discourse is shown to employ methods of 'epic' presentation and techniques of de-familiarization that are corollaries of the dramatic techniques for which his plays are justly famous. John J. White is Emeritus Professor of German and Comparative Literature at King's College London.

Brecht, Bertolt --- Aesthetics --- Knowledge --- Performing arts --- Theater --- History --- 20th century --- Brecht, Bertolt, --- Aesthetics. --- Performing arts. --- Brecht, Berthold Friedrich --- Brecht, Bertolt. --- Brecht, Bertholt --- Brecht, Bert --- Brecht, Eugen Berthold Friedrich --- Audience Catharsis. --- Bertolt Brecht. --- Epic Theater. --- Political Playwright. --- Theater Theory.

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For women, according to the contemporary Austrian dramatist Elfriede Jelinek, writing for the theater is an act of transgression. The idea that drama as a grand public genre resists women writers has become established in recent scholarship. But Jelinek herself has won the Büchner Prize, the most prestigious award in German letters, and there is a wealth of dramatic work by women from the 20th century and before: both facts seem to contradict the notion of women's exclusion from drama. So why has drama by women appear to have been written against the odds, and why has it, until very recently, been missing from literary histories? This book looks in detail at women's playwriting in German between 1860 and 1945, and at its reception by critics. Many of the works considered have never before been analyzed by modern scholarship; others, notably the plays of Marieluise Fleisser and Else Lasker-Schüler, are well known, but are read here for the first time in the context of earlier dramatic work by women. Sarah Colvin seeks modes of reading that do justice both to the dramatic texts as 'performance' texts, and to the sense of 'otherness' experienced by the woman writer in a male-dominated literary and theatrical environment. She concludes that an understanding of the techniques developed by women playwrights of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can enrich our reading not only of Fleisser and Lasker, but of contemporary dramatists such as Jelinek. If all the world's a stage, playwrights can theoretically be seen as in control of the world they create; this book asks to what extent women dramatists manage to use the space of the drama to reflect the world that 'they' experience. Sarah Colvin is Reader in German at the University of Edinburgh.

German drama --- Women and literature --- German literature --- Women authors --- History and criticism. --- History --- Drama. --- Else Lasker-Schuler. --- Female dramatists. --- Feminism. --- Gender. --- German drama. --- German female author. --- German literature. --- Marieluise Fleisser. --- Play. --- Playwright. --- Sexism. --- Women dramatist. --- Women in literature. --- Women writers. --- Women's playwriting.

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The Greek playwright Aristophanes (active 427-386 BCE) is often portrayed as the poet who brought stability, discipline, and sophistication to the rowdy theatrical genre of Old Comedy. In this groundbreaking book, situated within the affective turn in the humanities, Mario Telò explores a vital yet understudied question: how did this view of Aristophanes arise, and why did his popularity eventually eclipse that of his rivals? Telò boldly traces Aristophanes's rise, ironically, to the defeat of his play Clouds at the Great Dionysia of 423 BCE. Close readings of his revised Clouds and other works, such as Wasps, uncover references to the earlier Clouds, presented by Aristophanes as his failed attempt to heal the audience, who are reflected in the plays as a kind of dysfunctional father. In this proto-canonical narrative of failure, grounded in the distinctive feelings of different comic modes, Aristophanic comedy becomes cast as a prestigious object, a soft, protective cloak meant to shield viewers from the debilitating effects of competitors' comedies and restore a sense of paternal responsibility and authority. Associations between afflicted fathers and healing sons, between audience and poet, are shown to be at the center of the discourse that has shaped Aristophanes's canonical dominance ever since.

Greek drama (Comedy) --- History and criticism. --- Aristophanes --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Greek & Latin Languages & Literatures --- Languages & Literatures --- History and criticism --- E-books --- Aristofan --- Arystofanes --- Aristophane --- Aristofane --- Arisutopanesu --- Arisutofanesu --- Aristófanes --- Aristophanes Comicus --- אריסטופאנוס --- אריסטופאנס --- אריסטופאנס. כספי זיוה --- אריסטופניס --- אריסטופנס --- Ἀριστοφάνης --- Aristophanes [Comicus] --- aristophanes, affect, aesthetics, classical literature, classics, literary, playwright, plays, drama, popularity, humanities, clouds, wasps, audience, narrative of failure, authority, responsibility, criticism, interpretation, comic, comedy writer, ancient athens, representation, life, history, historical, peace, hierarchy, knights, identity, fashion, clothing, alienation, oresteia, dancing.

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A landmark in the publication of twentieth-century American poetry, this first volume of the long-awaited collected poetry, non-critical prose, and plays of Robert Duncan gathers all of Duncan's books and magazine publications up to and including Letters: Poems 1953-1956. Deftly edited, it thoroughly documents the first phase of Duncan's distinguished life in writing, making it possible to trace the poet's development as he approaches the brilliant work of his middle period. This volume includes the celebrated works Medieval Scenes and The Venice Poem, all of Duncan's long unavailable major ventures into drama, his extensive "imitations" of Gertrude Stein, and the remarkable poems written in Majorca as responses to a series of collaged paste-ups by Duncan's life-long partner, the painter Jess. Books appear in chronological order of publication, with uncollected periodical and other publications arranged chronologically, following each book. The introduction includes a biographical commentary on Duncan's early life and works, and clears an initial path through the textual complexities of his early writing. Notes offer brief commentaries on each book and on many of the poems. The volume to follow, The Collected Later Poetry and Plays, will include The Opening of the Field (1960), Roots and Branches (1964), Bending the Bow (1968), Ground Work (1984), and Ground Work II (1987).

American literature. --- English literature --- Agrarians (Group of writers) --- Duncan, Robert, --- Duncan, Robert Edward, --- Symmes, Robert, --- Duncan, Edward Howard, --- R. D. --- D., R. --- Duncan, Edward Howe, --- Symmes, Robert Edward, --- 20th century poetry. --- american history. --- american poetry. --- art of poetry. --- books for poetry lovers. --- classical plays. --- classical poetry. --- complex literacy. --- creative writing. --- drama. --- emotional poems. --- engaging. --- gifts for mom. --- hardship. --- how to write a poem. --- inspirational stories. --- intense emotion. --- intense. --- leisure reads. --- literary art. --- literary skills. --- love poems. --- page turner. --- playwright. --- poems and plays. --- poetry book. --- poetry skills. --- robert duncan. --- touching. --- travel books. --- vacation reads.

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Highlighted in this volume is the detective play The Inspector and the Hero by Femi Osofisan, one of Africa's leading playwrights. The play has until now only been published in Nigeria.

African drama (English) --- English drama --- African literature (English) --- African authors --- Africa. --- African American. --- African Theatre. --- African cultural dialogue. --- African performance. --- Chukwuma Okoye. --- Femi Osofisan. --- Nigeria. --- The Inspector and the Hero. --- University of Ibadan. --- University of Leeds. --- University of Warwick. --- Yvette Hutchison. --- applied theatre. --- audience engagement. --- carnivalization. --- case studies. --- choreographic study. --- contemporary field. --- cultural performances. --- dance. --- detective play. --- disability stigma. --- dramatic performances. --- festivals. --- folktales. --- indigenous African festivals. --- investigations. --- masquerade shows. --- musical performances. --- orality. --- performance aesthetics. --- performance forms. --- performances of nationality. --- playwright. --- pop culture. --- street theatre. --- theatre studies.