Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre (Methuen Drama Engage)

Shortlisted for The TaPRA David Bradby Monograph Prize 2023 As the first full-length study to analyse utopian plays in Western drama from antiquity to the present, Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre offers an illuminating appraisal of the objectives of utopianism as manifested in drama through the ages, and carefully ascertains the added value that live performance brings to the persuasion of utopian thought. Siân Adiseshiah scrutinises the distinctive intervention of utopian drama through its examination alongside the utopian prose tradition – in this way, the book establishes new ways of approaching utopian aesthetics and new ways of interpreting utopian drama. This book provides fresh understandings of the generic features of utopian plays, identifies the gains of establishing a new genre, and ascertains ways in which this genre functions as political theatre. Referring to over 40 plays, of which 18 are examined in detail, Utopian Drama traces the emergence of the utopian play in the Western tradition from ancient Greek Comedy to experimental contemporary work. Works discussed in detail include plays by Aristophanes, Margaret Cavendish, George Bernard Shaw, Howard Brenton, Claire MacDonald, Cesi Davidson, and Mojisola Adebayo. As well as offering extended attention to the work of these playwrights, the book reflects on the development of utopian drama through history, notes the persistent features, tropes, and conventions of utopian plays, and considers the implications of their registration for both theatre studies and utopian studies. "As the first full-length study to analyse utopian plays in Western drama from antiquity to the present, Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre offers an illuminating appraisal of the objectives of utopianism as manifested in drama through the ages, and carefully ascertains the added value that live performance brings to the persuasion of utopian thought. Siân Adiseshiah scrutinises the distinctive intervention of utopian drama through its examination alongside the utopian prose tradition - in this way, the book establishes new ways of approaching utopian aesthetics and new ways of interpreting utopian drama. This book provides fresh understandings of the generic features of utopian plays, identifies the gains of establishing a new genre, and ascertains ways in which this genre functions as political theatre. Referring to over 40 plays, of which 18 are examined in detail, Utopian Drama traces the emergence of the utopian play in the Western tradition from ancient Greek Comedy to experimental contemporary work. Works discussed in detail include plays by Aristophanes, Margaret Cavendish, George Bernard Shaw, Howard Brenton, Claire MacDonald, Cesi Davidson, and Mojisola Adebayo. As well as offering extended attention to the work of these playwrights, the book reflects on the development of utopian drama through history, notes the persistent features, tropes, and conventions of utopian plays, and considers the implications of their registration for both theatre studies and utopian studies"-- Provided by publisher

As the first full-length study to analyse utopian plays in Western drama from antiquity to the present, Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre offers an illuminating appraisal of the objectives of utopianism as manifested in drama through the ages, and carefully ascertains the added value that live performance brings to the persuasion of utopian thought. Siân Adiseshiah scrutinises the distinctive intervention of utopian drama through its examination alongside the utopian prose tradition – in this way, the book establishes new ways of approaching utopian aesthetics and new ways of interpreting utopian drama. This book provides fresh understandings of the generic features of utopian plays, identifies the gains of establishing a new genre, and ascertains ways in which this genre functions as political theatre. Referring to over 40 plays, of which 18 are examined in detail, Utopian Drama traces the emergence of the utopian play in the Western tradition from ancient Greek Comedy to experimental contemporary work. Works discussed in detail include plays by Aristophanes, Margaret Cavendish, George Bernard Shaw, Howard Brenton, Claire MacDonald, Cesi Davidson, and Mojisola Adebayo. As well as offering extended attention to the work of these playwrights, the book reflects on the development of utopian drama through history, notes the persistent features, tropes, and conventions of utopian plays, and considers the implications of their registration for both theatre studies and utopian studies.

Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: dramaturgies of hope 1 Utopia, genre, drama Introduction Utopia Genre Drama 2 Genealogical beginnings: Old Comedy, longing, and laughter Introduction Classical utopianism Greek comedy Aristophanes’ contemporaries Aristophanes, The Birds Aristophanes’ The Assemblywomen Conclusion 3 Temporary utopias of female community Introduction Utopian literary contexts Margaret Cavendish: biographical contexts Cavendish and literary experimentation Gendering utopia The Female Academy The Convent of Pleasure Bell in Campo Utopian returns 4 The enhanced utopian subject Contexts: utopian and scientific The ageing question Back to Methuselah Farfetched Fables Shaw’s utopian contribution 5 Utopia and the triumph of ordinary life A storm of a bad time Society of the spectacle The utopia will not be dramatized ‘You’re a dirty old slut’: sex, violence, and Sore Throats ‘[W]e will invent a new society and a new human nature’: prefigurative utopian experiments and Bloody Poetry The triumph of ordinary life: Greenland Conclusion 6 Utopian conversations Morean dialogics Dialogics and undecidability Utopian pessimism Black skin, white forms ‘Me, We’ in the chillout space Conclusion Epilogue Bibliography Newspaper reviews and articles Authorless newspaper reviews Websites Index "Utopian Drama considers utopian plays alongside the utopian prose tradition and provides fresh analyses of the generic features of utopian drama. It asks, in what dramatic genres does utopia develop? Is it productive to construct a new genre of utopian drama? Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre focuses on the utopian play, tracing its emergence in the Western tradition to ancient Greek theatre and to Old Comedy and Aristophanes' plays in particular. The book includes coverage of the early modern period, taking account of utopian plays by William Shakespeare, John Dryden and Aphra Behn, and focusing particularly on the feminist utopias of Margaret Cavendish. George Bernard Shaw's utopian theatre is discussed in the context of early twentieth-century eugenics and the biological potential of human beings, and the later twentieth century is considered through the utopian plays of Howard Brenton. The book closes with a reflection on the development of utopian drama over this considerable expanse of time, and discusses examples of utopian performance in the 21st century."-- Provided by publisher