Modern Drama:

Catalog description

A study of the origins and development of the two most influential dramatic movements of this century. After noting such antecedents as 19th-century melodrama and the ?well-made play,? we concentrate on the plays and theories of Gerhart Hauptmann, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, August Strindberg, ?mile Zola, and others. The social and psychological focus of these playwrights is discussed in terms of philosophical influences (Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Darwin) as well as in relation to important theatrical theorists, models, and institutions (Andre Antoine and the Theatre Libre, Konstantin Stanislavki and the Moscow Art Theatre). The continuing vitality of realism, as well as significant mutations of and modifications to it, are traced throughout the century.