Oscar Wilde's Society Plays [electronic resource] /
Bennett, Michael Y.editor.
As the first collection of essays about Oscar Wilde's comedies, the contributors re-evaluate Oscar Wilde's society plays as 'comedies of manners" to see whether this is actually an apt way to read Wilde's most emblematic plays. Focusing on both the context and the texts, the collection locates Wilde both in his social and literary contexts.
""Cover""; ""Title""; ""Copyright""; ""Contents""; ""List of Figures""; ""Introduction: The Importance of Laughing in Earnest""; ""Gwendolyn: Her Mother?s Daughter""; ""Cecily: Either/Or, or Both/Also""; ""Jack: The Desire for an Ernest Lineage""; ""Algernon: In It For/To Be Himself""; ""Notes""; ""Part I: Contexts""; ""1. Wit in Earnest: Wilde?s Irish Word-Play""; ""Irish Counterspeak""; ""Turning the Word""; ""Turning a Phrase""; ""The Sentence as Bull""; ""Irish Power Plays""; ""The Revenge of the Dandy""; ""An Irish Dictatorship?""; ""Notes""
""2. The Tragicomedies of Oscar Wilde: A Wilde Response to Melodrama""""I.""; ""II.""; ""III.""; ""IV.""; ""Notes""; ""3. Oscar Wilde?s Unfinished Society Plays: Mr. and Mrs. Daventry, A Wife?s Tragedy, and Love Is Law""; ""Mr. and Mrs. Daventry and Wilde?s Adultery Scenario""; ""A Wife?s Tragedy: An Unfinished Affair""; ""Love Is Law and ?the Peer of Ibsen?""; ""Notes""; ""4. Wilde?s Comedic Takes on the New Woman: A Comparison with Ibsen and Shaw""; ""Introduction""; ""Wilde, Ibsen, and Shaw""; ""Marriage and Women?s Emancipation""; ""Redefining the Ideal Couple""
""Motherhood and the Woman with a Past""""Female Solidarity""; ""Notes""; ""5. Three Comedies and a Funeral: The Endgame of The Importance of Being Earnest""; ""Notes""; ""Part II: Texts""; ""6. Deconstructive Strategies in Wilde?s Social Comedies: From Melodrama to Deconstruction""; ""Naming and Genetic Identity""; ""Inversion and Continuity""; ""The Importance of Being Earnest""; ""Notes""; ""7. Ernest in Name, but  How Earnest in Manner?:  Acting in Wilde?s Comedy""; ""Popularity Brings Its Problems and Its Responsibilities""; ""Manners and the Actor""
""The Importance of Pace and Attention to Detail""""Performing with Style""; ""Conclusions Regarding Future Stagings""; ""Notes""; ""8. ?Would You Kindly Inform Me Who I Am??: Wilde?s Comedies of Manners as Tragedies""; ""Notes""; ""9. ?You Will Call Me Sister, Will You Not??: Friendship, Solidarity, and Conflict between Women in Wilde?s Society Plays""; ""The Strains of Sisterhood: Debating Bonds between Women in the Nineteenth Century""; ""Beauty and the Marriage Market: Competition between Women""; ""Women Beware Women: Sex, Class, and Corruption""
""Women Who ?Rule? Society: Upholding the Double Standard""""Conclusion: United We Stand, Divided We Fall?""; ""Notes""; ""10. Modern Ontologics and the Impotence of Being Earnest""; ""Notes""; ""Notes on Contributors""; ""Index""
Includes index.
As the first collection of essays about Oscar Wilde's comedies, the contributors re-evaluate Oscar Wilde's society plays as 'comedies of manners" to see whether this is actually an apt way to read Wilde's most emblematic plays. Focusing on both the context and the texts, the collection locates Wilde both in his social and literary contexts.
Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900
Theater—History.
Performing arts.
Theater.
British literature.
Arts.
Literature, Modern—19th century.
Theatre History.
Performing Arts.
Theatre and Performance Studies.
British and Irish Literature.
Arts.
Nineteenth-Century Literature.