{"product_id":"radical-stages","title":"Radical Stages","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis unique volume examines the evolution of British historical drama from the birth of modern British drama with John Osborne's \u003ci\u003eLook Back in Anger\u003c\/i\u003e in 1956 to the establishment of the right-wing government of Margaret Thatcher during the early 1980s. The book illustrates how the ruling group within a society establishes a cultural hegemony by which it perpetuates its values as society's norms. \u003ci\u003eRadical Stages\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how historical drama within the period increasingly was employed as a weapon in an assault upon this cultural hegemony.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst defining historical drama, Peacock differentiates the historical drama after 1956 from its predecessors as representing a shift from concern with individual psychology to an emphasis upon the socioeconomic context in which personality is formed. The first stage of this development, to 1968, was marked by a populist concern with ordinary people and by an absence of specific political propaganda. Following the defeat of student revolutionary movements in 1968, the gradual change in left-wing political inclination from anarchism to Marxism was treated in historical settings by such dramatists as Howard Brenton, Trevor Griffiths, Edward Bond, and David Edgar. \u003ci\u003eRadical Stages\u003c\/i\u003e analyzes these movements as reflected in drama and also considers the place of women in the revolutionary movements of the 1960s and in the British theatre and historical drama of the period. The final chapter speculates on the future of British historical drama in the wake of the fall of both the Thatcher government and communist governments in Eastern Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing Plc","offers":[{"title":"Default Product","offer_id":54219388977496,"sku":"9780313278884","price":82.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/radical-stages","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}