Overview

In studying performances of marriage in modern and contemporary British and American drama, Clum highlights the fact that - paradoxically - at a time when theatre was both popular entertainment and high culture, many of the most commercially and artistically successful plays about marriage were written by homosexual men. Beginning with Oscar Wilde and focusing on some of the most successful British and American playwrights of the past century, including Somerset Maugham, Noël Coward, Terence Rattigan, and Emlyn Williams in England and Clyde Fitch, George Kelly, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, and Edward Albee in the US, The Drama of Marriagelooks at how the plays they wrote about heterosexual marriage continue to impact contemporary gay playwrights and the depiction of marriage today.

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9780230338401

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Reviews

'John M. Clum's The Drama of Marriage: Gay Playwrights/Straight Unions from Oscar Wilde to the Present casts a look at important interconnected issues revolving around the concept of marriage. Unique is the vantage point of playwrights whose own sexual orientation was or is partly or entirely towards men. This not only legitimates but necessitates the strong biographical approach Clum has chosen. The volume is immensely readable, garners important results by way of an incredibly dense tour de force, and animates the reader to delve deeper not only into the works but also the life stories of the playwrights discussed. Primary text and author are always the focus and are honoured in this way...John M. Clum's publications are seminal works in their field, and this latest volume is a gem.' - Theater Forschung

At a time when the traditional definitions of marriage are being questioned and the legality of same-sex marriage is being debated, all legislators, judges, and the electorate should read this well-researched and lively book. Clum examines how the complex and often closeted lives of several British and American gay playwrights are reflected in their depictions of how couples in their plays perform their marriages - as entrapment, as necessity, as convenience, with deception, with negotiation, with compromise, with transgressions - and 'challenge conventional notions of love and marriage.' Clum's relevant, fascinating, and provocative work critiques the premises of marriage and illustrates the countless ways the institution is performed. --Robert A. Schanke, professor emeritus, Central College and author of Queer Theatre and the Legacy of Cal Yeomans (2011) There is very much a sense of this book being written in a real world in which sexuality still often has to be lived and defend

At a time when the traditional definitions of marriage are being questioned and the legality of same-sex marriage is being debated, all legislators, judges, and the electorate should read this well-researched and lively book. Clum examines how the complex and often closeted lives of several British and American gay playwrights are reflected in their depictions of how couples in their plays perform their marriages - as entrapment, as necessity, as convenience, with deception, with negotiation, with compromise, with transgressions - and 'challenge conventional notions of love and marriage.' Clum's relevant, fascinating, and provocative work critiques the premises of marriage and illustrates the countless ways the institution is performed. - Robert A. Schanke, professor emeritus, Central College and author ofQueer Theatre and the Legacy of Cal Yeomans(2011) There is very much a sense of this book being written in a real world in which sexuality still often has to be lived and defended

Author Information

JOHN M. CLUM Professor of Theater Studies and English at Duke University, USA.

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