The travel to the past in twentieth-century Anglo-American drama.
Item
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Title
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The travel to the past in twentieth-century Anglo-American drama.
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Identifier
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AAI9732910
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identifier
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9732910
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Creator
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Dee, Edward Martin.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Daniel Gerould
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater | Literature, English | Literature, American
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Abstract
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This dissertation demonstrates that time travel to the past, a theme common to science fiction and fantasy, is a transgeneric motif used in twentieth-century commercial drama, impelling particular choices in terms of characters, structures, and staging. These dramas present popular, if unconscious, metaphors of Freudian theory integrated into the structure of society. The plays are cathartic, allowing the audience to come to terms with the past.;The first chapter deals with historical context by examining the evolution of the time-travel play through the work of J. M. Barrie. The four plays this chapter centers on, The Admirable Crichton, Peter Pan, Dear Brutus, and Mary Rose, mark a progression that leads to what I call the "true" time-travel play.;The second chapter examines the common structures of backward time-travel dramas: a frame story set in the present that anchors the temporal fantasy and a romantic/sexual triangle that forces the time traveler to choose between remaining in the fictive past or returning and confronting a difficult present.;Chapter three studies the dramatic figures consistently appearing in these plays: the time traveler; sexually aggressive figures, usually women, one in the world of the past, one in the consensus reality of the present; and the catalyst figure who functions in the psychoanalytic role, helping the time traveler to resolve his neurotic tendencies.;The final chapter involves the practicalities of staging the backward time-travel drama, the problems and possible solutions presented by the dramatist. The conclusion examines the cathartic nature of these plays in alleviating fears of the future.;The central example is the musical adaptation of Mark Twain's novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Herbert Fields. Other plays discussed are John L. Balderston's Berkeley Square, Maxwell Anderson's The Star Wagon, Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon, Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, Anne-Marie MacDonald's Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), and Marsha Norman's Loving Daniel Boone. Foil plays are Lord Dunsany's IF, and Mikhail Bulgakov's Ivan Vasilievich.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
