A Critical Examination of Recent Trends in the Re-Interpretation of English Drama

FAIN: FA-10964-74

Richard L. Levin
SUNY Research Foundation, Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY 11794-0001)

To examine recent trends in criticism which have been producing various reinterpretations of the drama of certain major playwrights of the English Renaissance. The focus is on 3 main trends 1) analysis in terms of a "central theme," 2) the discovery of ironies undercutting the play's values, 3) insistence that play's meaning is deduced from attitudes held by the original audience. A systematic critique of this nature, which is reevaluating interpretations of English drama at its high point, is a significant contribution to the literary field.