A01=Verna A. Foster
absurdist plays
Author_Verna A. Foster
Category=DSA
Category=DSG
Cherry Orchard
Conscious Lovers
Corpus Christi Play
dramaturgical fusion
Dryden's Heroic Drama
early modern drama
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eq_biography-true-stories
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
European theatre history
fletcherian
Fletcherian Tragicomedy
genre theory
Greene's James IV
Guarinian Tragicomedy
Hedvig's Death
Heroic Drama
Hjalmar Ekdal
James IV
katharine
king
Massinger's Plays
metatheatre analysis
Model Spectator
modern
Modern Tragicomedy
Providential Design
renaissance
Renaissance Tragicomedy
Rival Ladies
Romantic Tragicomedies
sentimental
Sentimental Comedy
shakespearean
Shakespearean Tragicomedy
Streetcar Named Desire
tale
tragicomic genre evolution
Uncle Vanya
Wild Duck
winter's
Winter's Tale
worth
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9780754635673
- Weight: 453g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 20 Feb 2004
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Focusing on European tragicomedy from the early modern period to the theatre of the absurd, Verna Foster here argues for the independence of tragicomedy as a genre that perceives and communicates human experience differently from the various forms of tragedy, comedy, and the drame (serious drama that is neither comic nor tragic). Foster posits that, in the sense of the dramaturgical and emotional fusion of tragic and comic elements to create a distinguishable new genre, tragicomedy has emerged only twice in the history of drama. She argues that tragicomedy first emerged and was controversial in the Renaissance; and that it has in modern times replaced tragedy itself as the most serious and moving of all dramatic genres. In the first section of the book, the author analyzes the name 'tragicomedy' and the genre's problems of identity; then goes on to explore early modern tragicomedies by Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger. A transitional chapter addresses cognate genres. The final section of the book focuses on modern tragicomedies by Ibsen, Chekhov, Synge, O'Casey, Williams, Ionesco, Beckett and Pinter. By exploring dramaturgical similarities between early modern and modern tragicomedies, Foster demonstrates the persistence of tragicomedy's generic markers and provides a more precise conceptual framework for the genre than has so far been available.
Verna A. Foster is an associate professor of English at Loyola University Chicago, where she teaches courses in modern drama, Shakespeare, and dramatic theory. She has published numerous essays on early modern and modern drama.
