Tragicomedy and Contemporary Culture (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780333448793)

This study examines the historical relationship between tragicomedy in the modernist theatre and the performative culture of Western consumer societies. While discussing a wide range of playwrights, it focusses specifically on the work of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Sam Shepard. Their plays, it is argued, illuminate the forms of pleasure, fear, performance and corruption which dominate our daily lives. Tragicomedy is seen as unique becuae of the existential playfulness and confusion of its protagonists, and because of its muted vision of apocalypse in the nuclear age.

Author: John Orr
ISBN-10: 0333448790
ISBN-13: 9780333448793
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Language: English
Published: 09/23/1991
Pages: 170
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.56d