French Theater Since 1968 (World Authors Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805782974 ISBN 13: 9780805782974

Publisher: Twayne Publishers, 1995

Synopsis

Series Editors: Bernth Lindfors, University of Texas at Austin; Robert Lecker, McGill University; David OConnell, Georgia State University; David William Foster, Arizona State University; Janet Pérez, Texas Tech University.TWAYNES UNITED STATES AUTHORS, ENGLISH AUTHORS, and WORLD AUTHORS Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works. Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an authors work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writers work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading the Authors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

One lasting effect of France's May 1968 antiestablishment movement has been the reevaluation of the philosophical, psychological, and aesthetic aspects of theater. In the 1950s and 1960s the plays of Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Eugene Ionesco had abolished traditional theatrical forms, as had the existentialist theater of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Jean Anouilh. French playwrights, bursting with new ideas as well as with confidence in their own worth after 1968, formulated fresh criteria, probed new forms, and experimented with different approaches to the performing arts. As dramatists broke new ground, so directors broke away from established aesthetics to focus on audacious, provocative interpretations of playwright's visions. In this astute examination Bettina L. Knapp looks at how the outcry of young people in 1968 has influenced French directors and playwrights and has changed conceptions of "theater" in the two and a half decades following. Beginning with an overview of 25 years of theater - an artistic environment characterized by "Directors/Directives Galore" - Knapp proceeds to discuss the contributions of Lucien and Micheline Attoun's Theatre Ouvert, Ariane Mnouchkine's Theatre du Soleil, Antoine Vitez, Armand Gatti, Patrice Chereau, Nathalie Sarraute, Andree Chedid, Liliane Atlan, Michel Vinaver, and Valere Novarina. The study includes a useful appendix of plays, production dates, and directors.

About the Author:

Bettina L. Knapp is professor of French and comparative literature at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Twayne Publishers
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0805782974
• ISBN 13: 9780805782974
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 195
• Editor: Galens July