Modern Historical Tragicomedy: Texts and Contexts

FAIN: FS-10848-78

Paul Z. Hernadi
University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA 93106-0001)

Comparative study of one play each by Shaw, Eliot, Wilder, Miller, Claudel, Cocteau, Sartre, Camus, Anouilh, Brecht, Frisch, Durrenmatt, Weiss, and Hochhuth. Special stress on four sets of interrelated critical concerns: verisimilitude and veracity in myth, fiction, and historiography; modern theories of tragedy, comedy, and tragicomedy; open society and the cultural climate of ironic pluralism; empathy and distance as rival but combinable objectives in the staging of modern drama. Each participant will choose a preferred line of exploration: philosophical, textual, sociological, theatrical, or an appropriate combination of these and others.