Issue Details: First known date: 2020... 2020 ‘Mad, Muddy, Mess of Eels’ : Modern Theatre and Patrick White’s Sensuous Dramaturgy
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Patrick White’s The Ham Funeral (written 1947, first performed in 1961) has not received much critical or dramaturgical interrogation, and yet this play provides insight into how the internationally renowned novelist translated and transformed language for the stage. The draw of the inevitable somatic embodiment of the play-text is central to White’s dramaturgical knack for creating characters for the stage. This chapter considers dramaturgy as an active literary critical method that renders a narrative ‘live’ and manifesting the playwright’s intentions. White’s The Ham Funeral can be seen as a case study for how he specifically defied traditional Australian dramatic conventions of the mid-twentieth century in order to propel new ways of writing plays for Australian audiences. His focus on the somatic rendering of language in The Ham Funeral specifically requires live bodies to realise crucial dramatic meaning occurring at the interface between language and liveness.'

Source: Abstract

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Routledge Companion to Australian Literature Jessica Gildersleeve (editor), London : Routledge , 2020 21550229 2020 anthology criticism

    'In recent years, Australian literature has experienced a revival of interest both domestically and internationally. The increasing prominence of work by writers like Christos Tsiolkas, heightened through television and film adaptation, as well as the award of major international prizes to writers like Richard Flanagan, and the development of new, high-profile prizes like the Stella Prize, have all reinvigorated interest in Australian literature both at home and abroad. This Companionemerges as a part of that reinvigoration, considering anew the history and development of Australian literature and its key themes, as well as tracing the transition of the field through those critical debates. It considers works of Australian literature on their own terms, as well as positioning them in their critical and historical context and their ethical and interactive position in the public and private spheres. With an emphasis on literature’s responsibilities, this book claims Australian literary studies as a field uniquely positioned to expose the ways in which literature engages with, produces and is produced by its context, provoking a critical re-evaluation of the concept of the relationship between national literatures, cultures, and histories, and the social function of literary texts.'

    Source : Publisher's blurb.

    London : Routledge , 2020
    pg. 75-82
Last amended 1 Oct 2024 10:32:12
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