1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910842496903321

Autore

Kojecky Roger

Titolo

Coward the Dramatist : Morals and Manners / / by Roger Kojecky

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer Nature Switzerland : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2024

ISBN

3-031-52284-2

Edizione

[1st ed. 2024.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (195 pages)

Collana

Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries, , 2634-582X

Disciplina

822.912

Soggetti

Playwriting

Dramatists

Theater - History

Literature, Modern - 20th century

Drama

Playwrights and Playwriting

Theatre History

Twentieth-Century Literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Love and Marriage -- Chapter 3: Morals and Manners -- Chapter 4: Comedies of Realism and Romance -- Chapter 5: The Theatre of War -- Chapter 6: Deeper Waters -- Chapter 7: Drama and Contemporary Society -- Chapter 8: Post-War Drama and Fiction -- Chapter 9: Last Plays -- Chapter 10: The Entertainer.

Sommario/riassunto

Discussions of Coward’s achievement in the theatre between 1920 and 1966 have tended to stay with the colourful biography. The more analytical literary approach adopted here places Coward’s success in its wider theatrical context, making the connections with the work of other dramatists. He developed his technique according to what worked with theatre audiences. Taking up the well-made play, he brought in a more colloquial dialogue, explored, for instance, the morality and psychology of marriage and free love, and frequently exploited the dramatic possibilities of characters grouped into two camps. The book considers both the ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’ plays (to use the Shavian terms),



and the episodic patriotic plays. It Includes Coward’s ambivalent approach to the ‘theatre of war’ in the 20th century. (123) Roger Kojecky: After an Oxford University English Faculty D. Phil. he held teaching positions in Tokyo and London University (lecturing on drama). He has been Secretary of the Christian Literary Studies Group, Oxford, and edits The Glass, covering a range of academic literature with articles and reviews. .