History of Modern Drama, Volume I

David Krasner is Associate Professor at Emerson College. His publications include A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama (ed., Blackwell, 2005), American Drama, 1945–2000: An Introduction (Blackwell, 2006), and Theatre in Theory 1900–2000: An Anthology (ed., Blackwell, 2008).

• Preface and Acknowledgements ixChapter 1 Introduction 1Part I: Trauma Drama 33Chapter 2 The Price of Freedom 39Chapter 3 Unhinged Subjectivity 80Chapter 4 Aboulia 109Part II: Modernist Beginnings 137Chapter 5 Rising Symbolism 145Chapter 6 Rising Expressionism 158Part III: Realism 167Chapter 7 Rural Realism 171Chapter 8 Urban Realism 178Chapter 9 Optimistic Passion 182Chapter 10 The Campaign Against Earnestness 189Part IV: Dissociated Sensibility 193Chapter 11 Distorted Modernism 195Chapter 12 Lyrical Modernism 203Chapter 13 Sentimental Modernism 210Part V: Avant Garde 215Chapter 14 Eros and Thanatos 217Chapter 15 Robots and Automatons 226Chapter 16 Farce and Parody 229Part VI: Epic Modernism 235Chapter 17 Gaming the System 237Part VII: The Divided Self of American Drama 259Chapter 18 Illusions 265Chapter 19 Delusions 275Chapter 20 Dreams 281Chapter 21 Gender 289Chapter 22 Race 293Part VIII: Hell Is Other People 301Chapter 23 The Farce of Intimacy 307Chapter 24 The Tragedy of Intimacy 315Part IX: Modernist Improvising 325Chapter 25 Beckett Impromptu 327Part X: Conclusion 349Notes 351Index 389

“Summing Up: Recommended.  All readers.”  (Choice, 1 November 2012)“In his comprehensive History of Modern Drama (the first of two volumes, running up to 1959), David Krasner cites Roland Barthes writing about Baudelaire, and responding to this question with his own answer.”  (Times Literary Supplement, 4 May 2012)