| Women and German Drama: Playwrights and Their Texts 1860-1945 Revised and Rev Edition Contributor(s): Colvin, Sarah (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1571132740 ISBN-13: 9781571132741 Publisher: Camden House (NY) OUR PRICE: $94.05 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 2003 Annotation: For women, according to the contemporary Austrian dramatist Elfriede Jelinek, writing for the theater is an act of transgression. The idea that drama as a grand public genre resists women writers has become established in recent scholarship. But Jelinek herself has won the Bchner Prize, the most prestigious award in German letters, and there is a wealth of dramatic work by women from the 20th century and before: both facts seem to contradict the notion of women's exclusion from drama. So why has drama by women appear to have been written against the odds, and why has it, until very recently, been missing from literary histories? This book looks in detail at women's playwriting in German between 1860 and 1945, and at its reception by critics. Many of the works considered have never before been analyzed by modern scholarship; others, notably the plays of Marieluise Fleisser and Else Lasker-Schler, are well known, but are read here for the first time in the context of earlier dramatic work by women. Sarah Colvin seeks modes of reading that do justice both to the dramatic texts as performance texts, and to the sense of "otherness" experienced by the woman writer in a male-dominated literary and theatrical environment. She concludes that an understanding of the techniques developed by women playwrights of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can enrich our reading not only of Fleisser and Lasker, but of contemporary dramatists such as Jelinek. If all the world's a stage, playwrights can theoretically be seen as in control of the world they create; this book asks to what extent women dramatists manage to use the space of the drama to reflect the world that they experience.Sarah Colvinis Reader in German at the University of Edinburgh. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Drama - Literary Criticism | European - German - Literary Criticism | Women Authors |
| Dewey: 832.809 |
| LCCN: 2002015195 |
| Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 9.2" W x 6.1" (1.00 lbs) 221 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Germany - Sex & Gender - Feminine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: For women, according to the contemporary Austrian dramatist Elfriede Jelinek, writing for the theater is an act of transgression. The idea that drama as a grand public genre resists women writers has become established in recent scholarship. But Jelinek herself has won the Büchner Prize, the most prestigious award in German letters, and there is a wealth of dramatic work by women from the 20th century and before: both facts seem to contradict the notion ofwomen's exclusion from drama. So why has drama by women appear to have been written against the odds, and why has it, until very recently, been missing from literary histories? This book looks in detail at women's playwriting inGerman between 1860 and 1945, and at its reception by critics. Many of the works considered have never before been analyzed by modern scholarship; others, notably the plays of Marieluise Fleisser and Else Lasker-Schüler, are wellknown, but are read here for the first time in the context of earlier dramatic work by women. Sarah Colvin seeks modes of reading that do justice both to the dramatic texts as performance texts, and to the sense of "otherness" experienced by the woman writer in a male-dominated literary and theatrical environment. She concludes that an understanding of the techniques developed by women playwrights of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries canenrich our reading not only of Fleisser and Lasker, but of contemporary dramatists such as Jelinek. If all the world's a stage, playwrights can theoretically be seen as in control of the world they create; this book asks to what extent women dramatists manage to use the space of the drama to reflect the world that they experience. Sarah Colvin is Reader in German at the University of Edinburgh. |
Contributor Bio(s): Colvin, Sarah: - University of Edinburgh |