The Vital Lie : Reality and Illusion in Modern Drama.
Title:
The Vital Lie : Reality and Illusion in Modern Drama.
Author:
Abbott, Anthony S.
ISBN:
9780817382537
Personal Author:
Edition:
2nd ed.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (258 pages)
Contents:
Contents -- Preface: The Vital Lie -- 1. Reality, Illusion, and the More Abundant Life -- Part One: The Hegelians -- 2. Henrik Ibsen -- 3. August Strindberg -- 4. Anton Chekhov -- 5. George Bernard Shaw -- 6. John Millington Synge -- Part Two: Lost and Found -- 7. Luigi Pirandello -- 8. Bertolt Brecht -- 9. T. S. Eliot -- 10. Eugene O'Neill -- 11. Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams -- Part Three: Absurdism and After -- 12. Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco -- 13. Edward Albee -- 14. Harold Pinter -- 15. Theater as Reality/Reality as Theater -- 16. Reality and the Hero -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Permissions -- Index.
Abstract:
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.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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