The Drama of Attack

Fülszöveg

The social and economic upheaval of the Depression years shaped the work of many American dramatists of the period. Even those plays that sought only to divert their audiences dealt wryly with current patterns of life; the more serious urged their audiences to social action-usually with proposals of leftist solutions to the nation's problems. Sam Smiley examines forty-one of the most powerful of these plays from the vantage point of classical criticism. Collectively terming them "the drama of attack," he presents cogent arguments that they share certain characteristics of the didactic form and brings to attention the universality and timelessness of their concerns. Produced professionally in New York from 1930 through 1939, these plays are the work of somé of America's most gifted playwrights, among them, Clifford Odets, Lillian Hellman, Elmer Rice, Clare Boothe, Paul Green, Langston Hughes, Sidney Kingsley, Archibald MacLeish, and Irwin Shaw. The dramas are exciting presentations... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The social and economic upheaval of the Depression years shaped the work of many American dramatists of the period. Even those plays that sought only to divert their audiences dealt wryly with current patterns of life; the more serious urged their audiences to social action-usually with proposals of leftist solutions to the nation's problems. Sam Smiley examines forty-one of the most powerful of these plays from the vantage point of classical criticism. Collectively terming them "the drama of attack," he presents cogent arguments that they share certain characteristics of the didactic form and brings to attention the universality and timelessness of their concerns. Produced professionally in New York from 1930 through 1939, these plays are the work of somé of America's most gifted playwrights, among them, Clifford Odets, Lillian Hellman, Elmer Rice, Clare Boothe, Paul Green, Langston Hughes, Sidney Kingsley, Archibald MacLeish, and Irwin Shaw. The dramas are exciting presentations of social problems that continue to trouble audiences today, for instance, those that call for an end to war (Bury the Dead, Johnny Johnson), justice in the courts (They Shall Not Die, Judgment Day], the destruction of totalitarianism (Till the Day I Die, Margin for Error), racial justice (Brass Ankle, Mulatto), and economic justice (Waiting for Lefty, The Cradle Will Rock). The Drama of Attack is one of the few studies to investigate the struc- Vissza