Romantic Comedy

Prof. Trevor R. Griffiths

ISBN 10: 1350183415 / ISBN 13: 9781350183414

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2023

New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Seller Inventory # B9781350183414

Synopsis:

‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ – so says Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for more than 2000 years the problems faced by young men and women fighting to find and keep an appropriate sexual partner have been a theatrical staple. This book explores the shapes that Romantic Comedy has assumed from Greek New Comedy via Shakespeare to the present. Changing social values have helped to redefine the genre’s traditional hetero-normativity, while the recent trend towards more fluid casting has opened up many romantic comedies to radical reinterpretations. Organized chronologically to allow readers to trace the development of the form against changing societal norms, the book features a range of case studies of key works from the British tradition, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Susanna Centlivre’s A Bold Stroke for a Wife, Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, Stanley Houghton’s Hindle Wakes, Noël Coward’s Private Lives, Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey, Ayub Khan-Din’s East is East and David Eldridge’s Beginning.

About the Authors: Trevor R. Griffiths is a Visiting Honorary Professor in Humanities at the University of Exeter, UK, and formerly Professor of Theatre Studies at London Metropolitan University, UK.

SIMON SHEPHERD is Professor of Theatre and Deputy Principal (Academic) at the Central School of Speech and Drama, UK.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Romantic Comedy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publication Date: 2023
Binding: Paperback / softback
Condition: New