1、Part Four 2,The New Criticism American Drama,New Criticism was a dominant trend in English and American literary criticism of the mid twentieth century, from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Its adherents were emphatic in their advocacy of close reading and attention to texts themselves, and their reje

2、ction of criticism based on extra-textual sources, especially biography.,The history of American literature is short, and that of American drama is even shorter. Though some American scholars and critics take it for granted that American drama dates back to 1665, the year when Ye Beare and Ye Cubbe

3、was staged by some peasants, the history of American drama did not really begin until around the Revolution.,The first native tragedy, Prince of Parthia by Thomas Godfrey (1736-1763), was not produced until 1767. And the first successful comedy, The Contrast by Royall Tyler(1757-1826), was performed

4、 in New York as late as 1878. There were few important playwrights in the 19th century.,Taken as a whole, American drama before the First World War was not the mainstream of American literature. Its achievement was less significant than that of the novel or potry. Beginning with the twentieth centur

5、y, a departure from the conventional commercial theatre began to develop in America.,Eugene ONeill (1888-1953),It is Eugene ONeill who did more than anyone else in transforming modern American theatre from commercial conventions to artistic experiment.,He was an American playwright, and Nobel laurea

6、te in Literature. His plays are among the first to introduce into American drama the techniques of realism, associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American ve

7、rnacular and involve characters on the fringes of,society, engaging in depraved behavior, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. ONeill wrote only one well-known comedy (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays invol

8、ve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.,His best-known plays are 1.The Hairy Ape毛猿 2.DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS 榆樹下的欲望 3.LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT 長日終入夜 4.THE ICEMAN COMETH 買冰人來了,His Point of View:His purpose is to get the root of human desires and frustrations. He showed most characters in

9、his plays as seeking meaning and purpose in their lives, some through love, some through religion, some through revenge, all met disappointment. The characters seem to share ONeils perplexities of human nature. As a result of his tragic and nihilistic view of life, his works, in general, indicated c

10、haos and hopelessness.,His Style (1)ONeil was a tireless experimentalist in dramatic art. He paid little attention to the division of scenes. He introduced the realistic or even the naturalistic into the American theatre. (2)He borrowed freely from the best traditions of European drama, especially t

11、he stream of consciousness.,(3)He made use of setting and stage property to help in his dramatic representation. (4)He wrote long introduction and directions for all the scenes, explaining the mood and atmosphere. (5)He sometimes wrote the actors lines in dialect.,His position He was the first playw

12、right to explore serious themes in theatre. With him, American drama developed into a form of literature. And in him, American drama came of age (mature). He came only after Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw in the world of drama.,Comments: he was one of the greatest playwrights in American history. He w

13、on the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936, and Pulitzer Prizes four times. He is credited with raising American dramatic theater from its narrow origins to an art form respected around the world. He is the only dramatist in American literary history so far to win a Nobel Prize, and is widely acclaim

14、ed as “founder of the American drama”.,Tennessee Williams (1911-1983),He was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards for his works of drama. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition, The

15、Glass Menagerie (1945) and The Night of the Iguana (1961) received New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo received the Tony Award for best play. In 1980 he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.,His important plays 1. The Glass Me

16、nagerie 玻璃動物園 2. A Streetcar Named Desire 欲望號街車 3. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 熱鐵皮屋頂上的貓,His Point of View and Themes He writes about violence, sex, homosexuality(taboos in drama). Some of his plays rooted in southern social scene. The characters are often unhappy wanderers; lonely, vulnerable women indulg

17、ed in memory of the past or illusion of the future. He was attracted to bizarre characters and their predicament. He looked deeply into the psychology of the outcasts of society. He saw life a game which cannot be won. Almost all his characters are defeated.,His Style (1)combination of coarseness an

18、d poetry (2)vivid southern speech (3)He helped to break taboos, long imposed on the American literature.,He is one of the most prominent playwrights in United States after WWII, and certainly the greatest ever from the South.He wrote fiction and motion picture screenplays, but he is acclaimed primar

19、ily for his playsnearly all of which are set in the South,but which at their best rise above regionalism to approach universal themes. His plays portray the loneliness and isolation of modern man, revealing depths of frustration, sex and violence underneath a veil of romantic politeness.,Arthur Mill

20、er (1915-2005),He was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include award-winning plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible. Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and earl

21、y 1960s, a period during which he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee(眾議院非美活動調查委員會) , received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was married to Marilyn Monroe.,Miller and Marilyn Monroe,Miller is best known for the play DEATH OF A SALESMAN 推銷員之死 his other important plays are:

22、 1.All My Sons 全是我的兒子 2.The Crucible煉獄,His Theme: dilemma of modern man in relation to family and work. It is best expressed in his masterpiece DEATH OF A SALESMAN,With Tennessee Williams, Miller was one of the best-known American playwrights after WW II.He is an important playwright of social philo

23、sophy, concerned with the inner thoughts of individuals and their conflicts with the morality of their society.,Theatre of the Absurd 1.introduction: existentialist philosophy, mainly in Europe 2.four founders: Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov 3.What is “absurd”? Humorous an

24、d meaningless,Its Features (1)The basic assumption: human life lacks coherence and is chaotic. Life operates without any rules. (2)The world is meaningless, so the play appears meaningless. (3)It examines the problems of life and death, of isolation and communication. (4)It satirizes people who are

25、unaware of the ultimate reality (death).,(5)In absurd drama, situation is more important than characters and events. The dramatist wants to show people what their situation in their life is. Therefore, he constructs a play which presents a picture of the universal situation. One result of these is that the characters are often comic and humorous.,Edward Franklin Albee(1928),Edward Franklin Albee (1928-) i