Overview
This is the first major book-length study for four decades to examine the plays written by D. H. Lawrence, and the first ever book to give an in-depth analysis of Lawrence’s interaction with the theatre industry during the early twentieth century. It connects and examines his performance texts, and explores his reaction to a wide-range of theatre (from the sensation dramas of working-class Eastwood to the ritual performances of the Pueblo people) in order to explain Lawrence's contribution to modern drama. F. R. Leavis influentially labelled the writer 'D. H. Lawrence: Novelist'. But this book foregrounds Lawrence's career as a playwright, exploring unfamiliar contexts and manuscripts, and drawing particular attention to his three most successful works: The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, The Daughter-in-Law, and A Collier's Friday Night. It examines how Lawrence's novels are suffused with theatrical thinking, revealing how Lawrence’s fictions – from his first published work to the last story that he wrote before his death – continually take inspiration from the playhouse. The book also argues that, although Lawrence has sometimes been dismissed as a restrictively naturalistic stage writer, his overall oeuvre shows a consistent concern with theatrical experiment, and manifests affinities with the dramatic thinking of modernist figures including Brecht, Artaud, and Joyce. In a final section, the book includes contributions from influential theatre-makers who have taken their own cue from Lawrence's work, and who have created original work that consciously follows Lawrence in making working-class life central to the public forum of the theatre stage.
Full Product Details
Author: James Moran (University of Nottingham, UK)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Dimensions:
Width: 13.80cm
, Height: 1.60cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9781472570383
ISBN 10: 1472570383
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 19 November 2015
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
Moran provides a thorough discussion of the working dynamics of [Lawrence's] plays and displays a keen affinity for demonstrating the theatrical dependency of Lawrence's novels. After an introductory overview of Lawrence and his cultural milieu, Moran devotes chapters to Lawrence's transition into playwriting, his difficulties with the genre, specific correlations with his novels, and his maturation as a dramatist. ... Replete with notes and an extended bibliography, Moran's study enhances appreciation of an important facet of Lawrence's artistry. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. CHOICE Moran covers a wide range of material succinctly, effectively introducing the plays to the many who will be unfamiliar with them, and offering concisely pertinent readings for fully fledged Lawrentians. This accessible volume will be useful to students and scholars of Lawrence, but is also accessible to a general readership. It deserves to contribute towards a resituating, or perhaps even rehabilitation, of Lawrence as a key modernist author not only of novels, but of some compelling, evocative and innovative drama. Studies in Theatre and Performance
Moran provides a thorough discussion of the working dynamics of [Lawrence's] plays and displays a keen affinity for demonstrating the theatrical dependency of Lawrence's novels. After an introductory overview of Lawrence and his cultural milieu, Moran devotes chapters to Lawrence's transition into playwriting, his difficulties with the genre, specific correlations with his novels, and his maturation as a dramatist. ... Replete with notes and an extended bibliography, Moran's study enhances appreciation of an important facet of Lawrence's artistry. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. CHOICE
Moran provides a thorough discussion of the working dynamics of [Lawrence's] plays and displays a keen affinity for demonstrating the theatrical dependency of Lawrence's novels. After an introductory overview of Lawrence and his cultural milieu, Moran devotes chapters to Lawrence's transition into playwriting, his difficulties with the genre, specific correlations with his novels, and his maturation as a dramatist. ... Replete with notes and an extended bibliography, Moran's study enhances appreciation of an important facet of Lawrence's artistry. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. CHOICE [A] useful companion to the theatrical works. Times Literary Supplement Moran covers a wide range of material succinctly, effectively introducing the plays to the many who will be unfamiliar with them, and offering concisely pertinent readings for fully fledged Lawrentians. This accessible volume will be useful to students and scholars of Lawrence, but is also accessible to a general readership. It deserves to contribute towards a resituating, or perhaps even rehabilitation, of Lawrence as a key modernist author not only of novels, but of some compelling, evocative and innovative drama. Studies in Theatre and Performance
Author Information
James Moran is Head of Drama in the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of The Theatre of Seán O'Casey (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2013). His other books include: Staging the Easter Rising (2005), and as editor Four Irish Rebel Plays (2007).
