Vital Lie
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A01=Anthony Abbott
absurdism
anthology
Anton Chekhov
Arthur Miller
August Strindberg
Author_Anthony Abbott
Bertolt Brecht
Category=DSG
character
character study
contemporary playwrights
drama
dramatic truth
Edward Albee
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Eugene Ionesco
Eugene O'Neill
existential themes
fiction
George Bernard Shaw
Harold Pinter
Henrik Ibsen
illusions necessary for survival
literary analysis
literary criticism
literature
lost and found
Luigi Pirandello
metaphysical drama
modern drama
modern theatrical philosophy
plays
playwright
postmodern theater
psychological issues
reality illusion conflict
reality versus illusion
reality vs. illusion
Samuel Beckett
societal issues
stagecraft
T.S. Eliot
Tennessee Williams
The Hegelians
theare
theater
theater and philosophy
theatrical
theatrical illusion
writing
Product details
- ISBN 9780817312022
- Weight: 420g
- Dimensions: 148 x 233mm
- Publication Date: 08 Aug 2003
- Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The Vital Lie is the first book to examine the reality-illusion conflict in modern drama from Ibsen to present-day playwrights. The book questions why vital lies, lies necessary for life itself, are such an obsessive concern for playwrights of the last hundred years. Using the work of fifteen playwrights, Abbott seeks to discover if modern playwrights treat illusions as helpful or necessary to life, or as signals of sicknesses from which human beings need to be cured. What happens to characters when they are forced to face the truth about themselves and their worlds without the protection of their illusions? The author develops a three-part historical analysis of the use of the reality-illusion theme, from its origins as a metaphysical search to its current elaborations as a theatrical game.
Anthony S. Abbott is Professor of English, Davidson College.
