Verbal Violence Contemporary Drama: From Handke to Shepard
Cambridge University Press
Edition: New Ed, 8/21/2008
EAN 9780521032711, ISBN10: 0521032717
Paperback, 256 pages, 21.6 x 14 x 1.6 cm
Language: English
In this book, Jeanette Malkin considers a broad spectrum of post-war plays in which characters are created, coerced and destroyed by language. The playwrights examined include Handke, Pinter, Bond, Albee, Mamet and Shepard, as well as Vaclav Havel and two of his plays: The Garden Party and The Memorandum. These playwrights portray language's power within our political, social and interpersonal worlds. The violence that language does, the 'tyranny of words', grabs centre stage in their plays. Characters are manipulated and defined through language, their actions and identity limited by verbal options, in order to reveal the links between language and power. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of drama, theatre history, American and European literature, and comparative literature.
1. Introduction
2. Language torture
on Peter Handke's Kaspar
3. Gagged by language
verbal domination and subjugation
4. Language as a prison
verbal debris and deprivation
5. Wrestling with language
'head to head'
6. Conclusion
Notes
Index.