An interpersonal perception mode of analysis can provide insight into a playscript, eliminating the protagonist-oriented view of drama and creating a dramatic production with richer texture. Since drama represents its characters' inabilities to process information satisfactorily or to maintain successful interpersonal relationships, all the…

This paper discusses generally Neil Simon's plays; specifically examines "God's Favorite,""Plaza Suite,""Barefoot in The Park,""Star Spangled Girl,""Come Blow Your Horn," and "Last of the Red Hot Lovers"; and quotes reviews of the plays. An examination of the composition of the plays…

The 5th International Conference on Language, Literature and Culture has been hosted by Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (Burdur, Turkey), in cooperation with Çankaya University (Ankara, Turkey) and Süleyman Demirel University (Isparta, Turkey). Our main aim has been to provide a forum for discussion, to facilitate integration in these fields, and to…

A University of Calgary seminar in dramatic criticism, intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, connects dramatic criticism with actual performance. In the first of a flexible series of units, students explore the meaning of criticism and learn where criticism is found. The second unit focuses on dramatic criticism as a…

An increasingly popular form of mass media persuasion is the "docudrama," a hybrid of the informative documentary and the dramatic film. The docudrama format presents viewers with a purposive viewpoint or value-laden interpretation of reality and contains some degree of historical accuracy and factual authenticity. The docudrama also…

The location of tension in the text of "A Streetcar Named Desire" is accomplished by close readings of traditional sources, particularly notes on Kazan's "Production"; Williams' thoughts on his script and Kazan's "Production"; and Williams' personal relationships. By logical twists the analysis supports, in this case,…

This paper traces Machiavelli's debt to classical rhetoric while outlining the rhetorical tenor of his comedy, "Mandragola." The paper specifically analyzes Machiavelli's attention to the medieval transmission of Ciceronian rhetoric by Boethius, as interpreted from the setting, characterization, and dialogue of "Mandragola."…

Over 200 participants from 10 states and 17 universities attended "The First National Symposium on Chicano Literature and Critical Analysis." Five of the papers presented at the symposium are given in this publication. The papers cover Chicano poetry, novel, drama, and popular folklore humor. "National Character vs Universality in…

A brief reading of "Desire under the Elms" by Eugene O'Neill illustrates how a conventional Oedipal reading of the playscript opens up spaces within the text for deconstructive free-play. In this case, a tension is identified and foregrounded between this conventional application of the Oedipal complex and Freud's interpretation of the…

Four twentieth century playwrights--Pirandello, Giraudoux, O'Neill, and Albee--differed in their solutions to the human dilemma and in their philosophic apprehensions of human dilemma, but all four showed interest in the basic concerns of all humanity: body and soul, appearance and reality, the real and the ideal. Albee, the only one of the four…

An examination of Albert Camus' definition of the actor in "The Myth on Sisyphus" helps to illuminate the character and role of The Player in Tom Stoppard's play and, hence, to bring light to an understanding of the philosophy of the play itself. The actor, for Camus, reveals our mortality in the face of the absurdity of our mortality,…

Shakespeare's lifetime coincided with the consolidation of modern capitalism, and his plays reveal his interest in economics--defined as a rational system for calculating and comparing the value of commodities--and especially the economics of time. Shakespeare's plays offer a critique of the new capitalism by showing the extent to which it can and…

For at least two kinds of literature instructors, classroom use of a film derived from a Shakespeare play is potentially promising: a Shakespeare course instructor can present one attempt to visualize the implications of the printed word, and a teacher of a course which compares film and literature has at least one respectable film adaptation of a…

The distinguishable black theatre in America, mirroring a distinguishable black experience, is an artistic product which demands audience involvement. Both the Afro-American oral tradition and the art of gesture are integral aspects of black theatre. In addition, the tragedy found black theatre is not tragedy in the classic sense, as blacks feel…

In the process of perfecting oral performances of selected scenes from Eudora Welty's "The Optimist's Daughter," it is important to study point of view and character as they pertain to the play. Four aspects should be considered to understand the point of view: (1) the character's story, (2) the position from which the narrator speaks,…