Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre

Description

As the first full-length study to analyse utopian plays in Western drama from antiquity to the present, Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre offers an illuminating appraisal of the objectives of utopianism as manifested in drama through the ages, and carefully ascertains the added value that live performance brings to the persuasion of utopian thought. Siân Adiseshiah scrutinises the distinctive intervention of utopian drama through its examination alongside the utopian prose tradition – in this way, the book establishes new ways of approaching utopian aesthetics and new ways of interpreting utopian drama. This book provides fresh understandings of the generic features of utopian plays, identifies the gains of establishing a new genre, and ascertains ways in which this genre functions as political theatre. Referring to over 40 plays, of which 18 are examined in detail, Utopian Drama traces the emergence of the utopian play in the Western tradition from ancient Greek Comedy to experimental contemporary work. Works discussed in detail include plays by Aristophanes, Margaret Cavendish, George Bernard Shaw, Howard Brenton, Claire MacDonald, Cesi Davidson, and Mojisola Adebayo. As well as offering extended attention to the work of these playwrights, the book reflects on the development of utopian drama through history, notes the persistent features, tropes, and conventions of utopian plays, and considers the implications of their registration for both theatre studies and utopian studies. Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: dramaturgies of hope 1 Utopia, genre, drama Introduction Utopia Genre Drama 2 Genealogical beginnings: Old Comedy, longing, and laughter Introduction Classical utopianism Greek comedy Aristophanes’ contemporaries Aristophanes, The Birds Aristophanes’ The Assemblywomen Conclusion 3 Temporary utopias of female community Introduction Utopian literary contexts Margaret Cavendish: biographical contexts Cavendish and literary experimentation Gendering utopia The Female Academy The Convent of Pleasure Bell in Campo Utopian returns 4 The enhanced utopian subject Contexts: utopian and scientific The ageing question Back to Methuselah Farfetched Fables Shaw’s utopian contribution 5 Utopia and the triumph of ordinary life A storm of a bad time Society of the spectacle The utopia will not be dramatized ‘You’re a dirty old slut’: sex, violence, and Sore Throats ‘[W]e will invent a new society and a new human nature’: prefigurative utopian experiments and Bloody Poetry The triumph of ordinary life: Greenland Conclusion 6 Utopian conversations Morean dialogics Dialogics and undecidability Utopian pessimism Black skin, white forms ‘Me, We’ in the chillout space Conclusion Epilogue Bibliography Newspaper reviews and articles Authorless newspaper reviews Websites Index