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SHAW: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies, Vol. 14
Shaw and the Last Hundred Years
346 pages | 6 x 9 | 1994
ISBN 978-0-271-01324-4 | cloth: $57.95
Paperback edition is not available in the U.S.
Illuminating studies in honor of the hundredth anniversary of the production of Shaw's first play.
In 1892 the first production of Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, heralded the birth of modern drama in the English language. One hundred years later a group of Shavians gathered to examine the significance and influence of Shaw's drama in the English-speaking world. The conference, sponsored by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, brought together theater scholars, critics, and artists from Canada, England, Ireland, and the United States. The conference also featured productions of The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet, The Man of Destiny, and Farfetched Tales, each followed by a symposium.
The centenniel conference not only marked the importance of the event but also stimulated new ways of regarding that historic moment, reexaminations of the significance of Shaw's plays, and explorations of their consequences. Some speakers reevaluated the genesis of the first production of Widowers' Houses and its social, cultural, and theatrical context. Some brought to bear on the subject of Shavian drama recent critical perspectives, such as feminism, deconstructionism, and the type of close textual and intertextual scrutiny seldom accorded Shaw. Others explored his impact in England, America, Ireland, and the Antipodes. Still others examined the relationship of comedy and ideas, subtext, and how this Victorian dramatist remains pertinent today. The conference concluded with a symposium that aimed to assess what might lie ahead for Shaw on page and stage in the next hundred years. This volume records the proceedings of the conference as well as reviews and the continuing checklist of Shaviana.
Contributors are Peter Barnes, Charles A. Berst, Montgomery Davis, Bernard F. Dukore, Martin Esslin, Joanne E. Gates, Nicholas Grene, Christopher Innes, Katherine E. Kelly, Frederick P. W. McDowell, Rhoda Nathan, Christopher Newton, Michael O'Hara, Jean Reynolds, Irving Wardle, Stanley Weintraub, and J. L. Wisenthal.
Bernard F. Dukore is University Distinguished Professor of Theater Arts and Humanities at Virginia Tech. He is the author of several books and editor, most recently, of The Drama Observed by Bernard Shaw (Penn State, 1993).
Content
Notices
The 1992 Conference: Shaw And The Last Hundred Years
Bernard F. Dukore
Part I: In The Beginning
Shaw Decides To Become A Playwright: July-December 1892
Stanley Weintraub
The 9th Of December 1892: Going To The Theater In The Nineties-A Fantasia In The Manner Of Sacheverell Sitwell
Christopher Newton
The Theatrical Politics Of Elizabeth Robins And Bernard Shaw
Joanne E. Gates
Part II: The Gospel Of Brother Bernard
From Symposium: The Shewing-Up Of Blanco Posnet And The Man Of Destiny
Shaw On Woman Suffrage: A Minor Player On The Petticoat Platform
Katherine E. Kelly
From Symposium: Farfetched Fables
Jay Tunney
Part III: The Thing Happens
The Shaw Factor: Retrospective Modernism And British Theater
Christopher Innes
As Kingfishers Catch Fire: The Saints And Poetics Of Shaw And T.S. Eliot
Charles A. Berst
Shaw And American Drama
Bernard F. Dukore
Arms And The Man And The Federal Theater: Love And War In Troubled Times
Michael O'Hara
Shaw In The Irish Theater: An Unacknowledged Presence
Nicholas Grene
A Fabian Down Under: Shaw's Plays In The Antipodes
Rhoda Nathan
Tribute To Dan H. Laurence
Part IV: Comedies Of A Gentleman Who Became Elderly
Shaw At Play
Peter Barnes
Text And Subtext In Shavian Drama
Martin Esslin
Deconstructing Henry Higgins, Or Eliza As Derridean Text
Jean Reynolds
Shaw, Our Contemporary?-The Crooked Roads Of Genius
J.L. Wisenthal
Widowers' Houses: A Play For The 1890s And The 1990s
Frederick P.W. Mcdowell
Shaw: Off The Rocks
Irving Wardle
Shaw's Theater In Our Nineties: Back To The Future?
Montgomery Davis
Part V: As Far As Thought Dare Reach
From Symposium: What May Lie Ahead For Shaw After The First Hundred Years?
Reviews And Checklist
Reviews
The Prefatory Shaw (The Complete Prefaces, Vol. 1: 1889-1913, Ed. Dan H. Laurence And Daniel J. Leary)
Richard Nickson
The Stage's Genial Scourge (Bernard Shaw, The Drama Observed, Ed. Bernard R. Dukore)
Alfred Turco, Jr.
Holroyd Humorized (Bernard Shaw: The Last Laugh, by Michael Holroyd)
John A. Bertolini
Two Strikes And A Homer (Transformations and Texts, By Steven Joyce)
Dan H. Laurence
An International View Of Shaw (Bernard Shaw: On Stage, Ed. L.W. Conolly And Ellen M. Pearson)
R.F. Dietrich
Pen Portrait Of A Turhless Revealer (Studies In Bernard Shaw, By Jean-Claude Amalric)
Michel W. Pharand
A Continuing Checklist Of Shaviana
John R. Pfeiffer
Contributors