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Writing Wrongs
W. Davies King
Wallace Shawn
其他書名
The Work of Wallace Shawn
出版
Temple University Press
, 1997
主題
Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts
Drama / General
Literary Collections / General
Literary Collections / American / General
Literary Criticism / American / General
Literary Criticism / Drama
Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Politics
Performing Arts / General
ISBN
1566395178
9781566395175
URL
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=FD-BgOBf9A0C&hl=&source=gbs_api
EBook
SAMPLE
註釋
Wallace Shawn usually appears in our mind's eye as the consummate eccentric actor: the shy literature teacher in
Clueless
the diabolically rational villain in
The Princess Bride
or as the eponymous protagonist of
Vanya on 42nd Street.
Few of us realize, however, that Shawn is also one of today's most provocative and political playwrights.
Writing Wrongs: The Work of Wallace Shawn
is a close and personal look into the life and literary work of the man whom Joseph Papp called "a dangerous writer." As the son of the late William Shawn, renowned editor of
The New Yorker
Wallace Shawn was born into privilege and trained to thoroughly liberal values, but his plays relentlessly question the liberal faith in individualism and common decency. In an uncompromising way that is all his own, Shawn registers the shock of the new.
In works such as
Aunt Dan and Lemon, My Dinner with André
and
The Designated Mourner
he wrenches out of place all of the usual, comfortable mechanisms by which we operate as audiences. Perhaps our discomfort and struggle to understand a play might provoke some change in the way we see ourselves and behave in relation to others—but Shawn offers little in the way of solace.
W.D. King's incisive critiques of the plays and inquiry into the life and times of their author develop a portrait of Shawn as a major figure in contemporary theater. Author note:
William Davies King
is Associate Professor of Dramatic Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of
Henry Irving's "Waterloo": Theatrical Engagements with Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, Ellen Terry, Edward Gordon Craig, Late-Victorian Culture, Assorted Ghosts, Old Men, War, and History
which won the 1993 Joe A. Callaway Prize for Best Book on Theatre.