Identity and Community single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Identity and Community
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'After the New Wave few people other than politicians and advertisers ever spoke again with confidence about the Australian National Character. In the theatre, as elsewhere in the 1980s, the idea that such a complex notion as 'Australianness' could ever be summed up in a simple drama of representation came to be seen as absurd. Difference was celebrated. The politics of personal and social identity became key determinants in the way in which new plays were produced and read by their audiences.'

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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    y separately published work icon Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2009 Z1576280 2009 multi chapter work criticism

    'John McCallum's new history explores the relationship between 20th century Australian drama and a developing concept of nation. The book focuses on the creative tension sparked by dueling impulses between nationalism and cosmopolitanism; and between artistic seriousness and larrikin populism. It explores issues such as the domineering influence of European high culture, the ongoing popularity of representational realism, the influence of popular theatrical forms, the ambivalence (between affection and aggression) of much Australian humour and satire, and the interaction between the personal and the political in drama.

    'The strength of Belonging is its comprehensiveness. Anyone studying an Australian play will find it here in the context of the other works by its author or the time and place in which it was written. As well as a rundown of the major writers and their works, the book also investigates a number of lesser known plays and writers.

    This authoritative study of Australian drama gives an account of the relationship between our theatre and our sense of self while taking into account a broad range of influences that helped to shape both.' (Publisher's blurb)

         Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2009     pg. 265-280
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Last amended 3 Jun 2009 11:54:59
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