20
thcentury American Theater
Two key concepts Realism:
Broadly defined as "the faithful representation of reality" or
"verisimilitude," realism is a literary technique practiced by many
schools of writing. Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the
representation of middle-class life. A reaction against romanticism, an interest in scientific method, the systematizing of the study of documentary history, and the influence of rational philosophy all affected the rise of realism. According to William Harmon and Hugh Holman, "Where romanticists transcend the immediate to find the ideal, and naturalists plumb파헤치다 the actual or superficial to find the scientific laws that control its actions, realists center their
attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence" ( A
Handbook to Literature 428).
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm
Expressionism:
Expressionism was a cultural movement originating in
Germany at the start of the 20th-century as a reaction to positivism and other artistic movements such as
naturalism and impressionism. It sought to express the meaning of "being alive" and emotional experience
rather than physical reality. It is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form. Expressionism is exhibited in many art forms, including painting, literature, theatre, film, architecture and music.
표현주의: 제1차 세계대전 뒤에 독일을 중심으로 하여 일어 난, 작자의 감정이나 사상을 주관으로 표현하려고 한 예술 상의 한 주의.
http://www.reproductionartgallery.com/art-
painting/expressionism.html
Eugene O’neill :
The representative works:
Desire Under the Elms, The Hairy Ape Long Day’s Journey into Night
O’neill’s Pulitzer Prize Winning plays:
Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie,
Strange Interlude,
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Bound East for Cardiff
PLOT SUMMARY:
Yank is a seaman on the S.S. Glencairn , and he is seriously injured in a fall. The others aboard
offer him encouragement, not wanting him to suspect he is in fact dying. After Yank asks,
"Who's that?" in reference to a "pretty lady
dressed in black" no one else can see, he dies.
http://americantheatrefrog.com/oneill.html
Act I
Anna Christie: Act I
The first act takes place in a bar, owned by Johnny the Priest and tended by Larry.
Old Chris, a coal barge captain, receives a letter from his daughter, a young woman whom he has not seen since she was a 5 years old and their family lived in Sweden.
They meet at the bar and she agrees to go on the coal barge with him. The rest of the play takes place on the barge.
Act II
The barge crew rescues Mat Burke and four other men, who were in an open boat after a shipwreck. After not getting along at first, Mat and Anna fall in love.
Act III
A confrontation between Anna, Chris and Mat. Mat wants to marry Anna, Chris does not want them to get married because he doesn't want her to marry a sailor, and
Anna is upset with both of them for trying to be in charge of her. Anna tells them the truth about her life, that she was raped while living with her mother's relatives on a Minnesota farm, and then became a prostitute after her time as a nurse's aide. Mat gets very angry, and Mat and Chris both leave.
Act IV
Mat and Chris return. after a dramatic confrontation, Mat forgives Anna for being a prostitute after she promises never to be one again, and Chris agrees to them getting married. It turns out that Chris and Mat have both signed up for the same ship going to South Africa, and they are about to leave the next day, but promise to come home to Anna after the voyage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Christie
O'Neill’s various styles:
Naturalism, realism, expressionism, The use of myth,
The use of the Freudian psychology.
The use of the stream-of consciousness
technique
Arthur Miller :
The representative works:
All My Sons
Death of a Salesman The Crucible
A View from the Bridge After the Fall
The Price
Tennessee Williams:
The representative works :
The Glass Menagerie
A Streetcar Named Desire Summer and Smoke
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Rose Tattoo
Camino Real
Orpheus Descending Suddenly, Last Summer Sweet Bird of Youth
The Night of the Iguana
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore
Edward Albee:
The representative works:
The American Dream
Who ’ s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Zoo Story, Seascape
A Delicate Balance
백인 남성 극작가
Sam Shepard: Buried Child, True West, Fool for Love
Lanford Wilson: Tally’s Folly Neil Simon: Lost in Yonkers
David Mamet: American Buffalo, Glenngarry Glen Ross, Oleanna
filmography:
Hannibal, Wag the Dog, About Last Night (Screen Play)
Tony Kushner: Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia
on National Themes
백인 여류 극작가들
Beth Henley: Crimes of the Heart
Marsha Norman: Getting Out, ‘Night Mother
Wendy Wasserstein: Heidi Chronicles
흑인 남성 극작가
Leroi Jones: The Toilet, The Slave Ed Bullins: Goin’ a Buffalo
August Wilson: Fences,
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,
Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars
흑인 여성 극작가들
