Title: Essays on modern American drama : Williams, Miller, Albee, and Shepard /
Authors: Parker, Dorothy, 1928-
Publisher: University of Toronto Press,
Year: 1987
Subjects: Williams, Tennessee,; Miller, Arthur,; Albee, Edward,; Shepard, Sam,; American drama History and criticism
Abstract: This anthology gathers some of Modern Drama's most distinguished pieces on America's four most important playwrights since Eugene O'Neill: Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, and Sam Shepard. While Parker has chosen these authors "as representative of the main stream of American dramatic tradition," she does not offer a general overview of the plays or playwrights, nor any general orientation to aid the reader. These essays are written by scholars for serious students of American drama. The majority of the essays concentrate on a single play, and while they appeared decades ago, all were major articles in the field. Old but solid, they should still be of interest to students and scholars alike.
Contents: Part 1. Tennessee Williams, 1911-1983. Myth as a basis of dramatic structure in Orpheus descending / Nancy Baker Traubitz ; The composition of The glass menagerie : an argument for complexity / Brian Parker ; Realism and theatricalism in A streetcar named Desire / Mary Ann Corrigan ; The grotesque children of The rose tattoo / Leland Starnes -- pt. 2. Arthur Miller, 1915-[2005]. All my sons and the larger context / Barry Gross ; The fall and after : Arthur Miller's confession / C.W.E. Bigsby ; Arthur Miller's The crucible : background and sources / Robert A. Martin ; Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy : a Sartrean interpretation / Lawrence D. Lowenthal -- pt. 3. Edward Albee, 1928- Tragic vision in The zoo story / Robert B. Bennett ; Games people play in Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? / Joy Flasch ; Curiouser and curiouser : a study of Edward Albee's Tiny Alice / C.W.E. Bigsby ; Death as a mirror of life : Edward Albee's All over / Robbie Odom Moses ; Albee's Seascape : an adult fairy tale / Lucina P. Gabbard -- pt. 4. Sam Shepard, 1943- Defusion of menace in the plays of Sam Shepard / Charles R. Bachman ; The tooth of crime : Sam Shepard's way with music / Bruce W. Powe ; Mythic levels in Shepard's True West / Tucker Orbison ; Sam Shepard's Buried child : the ironic use of folklore / Thomas Nash.