The Playwright as Thinker: A Study of Drama in Modern Times, Fourth Edition

Description

First published in 1946, The Playwright as Thinker is a classic work of drama criticism that helped create the intellectual environment in which serious American theater would thrive in the second half of the twentieth century. At the time of publishing, most drama critics believed dramatic art deserved no intellectual status; Eric Bentley set out to prove them wrong. Focusing on the canonic playwrights Strindberg, Ibsen, Pirandello, Sartre, and Brecht, Bentley viewed the playwright as thinker, and his survey of over 150 years of dramatic art provided, in essence, an intellectual history of Europe. This edition not only contains the original, long-suppressed foreword, in which Bentley lambastes the climate of Broadway at the time, but also the author's 1987 afterword.   CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION FOREWORD 1. THE TWO TRADITIONS OF MODERN DRAMA 2. TRAGEDY IN MODERN DRESS 3. TRAGEDY IN FANCY DRESS 4. WAGNER AND IBSEN: A CONTRAST 5. BERNARD SHAW 6. VARIETIES OF COMIC EXPERIENCE 7. AUGUST STRINDBERG 8. FROM STRINDBERG TO JEAN-PAUL SARTRE 9. FROM STRINDBERG TO BERTOLT BRECHT 10. BROADWAY-AND THE ALTERNATIVE NOTES AFTERWORD (1987) INDEX A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z WORKS BY ERIC BENTLEY