This study seeks to reunite American drama with more of the
mainstream of American literature using contemporary literary
theories of feminism, Derrida, Lacan, as well as the nature of
language. It also focuses on the theatrical ways that plays work
through performance and staging. This reveals how contemporary
playwrights see themselves not as authors, but as parts of a team
of designers, actors, and directors. Stage directions are largely
omitted, but knowledge of original productions--both as seen live
and recorded on tapes archived at Lincoln Center--reveal aspects of
fragmentation of scenery, minimalist acting, emphasis on the
"unsayable," which makes these plays far more postmodern than they
might seem merely as read. More importantly, the final chapter
reveals how these techniques culminate in 1990s play' ability to
extend beyond the real in a myriad of ways, all united by a new,
postmodern view of the divine as interpenetrating reality. In one
sense, this seems to be juggling quite a few different
items-poststructural theory, modernist realists, as well postmodern
deconstructive realists and theatrical practice. All fit together
neatly, however, in each chapter through a focus on performance,
staging is seen as central to the dramatic experience, with
reviews, photographs, and archival videotapes of productions used
to verify and explore the plays' meanings. The plays, taken as a
whole, reflect the key issues of American society from reactions to
the Vietnam War, through issues of sexual preference, race, and
feminism and its backlash, through issues of wealth and poverty to
arrive at a new vision of a forgiving divine which accepts without
judgment all the issues of diversity. American Drama and the
Postmodern is an important book for collections in American
literature, drama and theatre, as well as for literary theory.
General
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