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University of Nottingham
School of American and Canadian Studies
Q43321
American Drama:
1750 - 2000
(20 Credits)
Semester One
2008-2009
Convenor: Dr Matthew Pethers
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AMERICAN DRAMA: 1750 – 2000
Module Code:
Credits:
Level:
Semester:
Prerequisites:
Q43321
20
3
1
None
Timetable:
One lecture and one seminar per week (Monday, 2-4, in LASS A2).
Attendance at lectures and seminars is compulsory.
Convenor/
Seminar Tutor:
Matthew Pethers
Room:
Trent, B62.
Office Hours:
To be announced
E-mail:
[email protected]
Tel:
0115 846 8667
DESCRIPTION: The theatre is a central and dynamic, but often overlooked, part of
American culture. This module will introduce students to the main developments in North
American drama from its beginnings in the mid-eighteenth century through to the present day.
At each stage the focus will be on the social and political contexts of the American theatre,
with particular emphasis on the question of how different theatrical movements neoclassicism, Romanticism, minstrelsy, expressionism, realism - connect with major
historical events such as the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and
the Cold War. Special attention will be paid to how the plays concerned deal with those
recurring American themes of identity and individuality, race and gender, nationality and
class; and a focus on the institutional and performative aspects of American drama will also
be crucial. We will move from studying playwrights like Royall Tyler and William Dunlap in
the eighteenth century, through William Henry Smith and George Aiken in the nineteenth
century, to Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Tony Kushner in the
twentieth century.
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OBJECTIVES: 1. To introduce students to key theatrical texts across a range of historical
periods and contexts. 2. To develop an understanding of important theories of performance,
and the changing style and form of the American theatre. 3. To promote an awareness of the
broader intellectual and cultural transformations in the periods under discussion. 4. To
analyse the representation of women, slaves, Native Americans and other marginalized social
groups in American drama produced between 1750 and 2000. 5. To contextualise the
American theatre in relation to other art forms, and in light of the challenges and demands of
popular culture.
SEMINARS: The texts you will need to purchase and read for the module are set out below
(p.6). You must bring the relevant texts to seminars and undertake the preparatory reading
required of you by your seminar leader. The prescribed reading for each class is merely a
starting point, and your exam and essay answers should always demonstrate that you have
read independently beyond the material prescribed and discussed in seminars and lectures.
This is essential in order to pass this module.
ASSESSMENT: You will be required to develop your organizational and analytical skills in
order to complete the essay and prepare for the examination. In seminars, you will be
expected, for the benefit of yourself and others in the group, to demonstrate the care with
which you have read the assigned texts, and to show that you have succeeded in making links
with the lectures and with the previous modules you have studied. The overall aim of your
participation in the course will be to develop and refine your written and verbal skills in
conjunction with subject-based knowledge.
The assessment weighting is 50% Essay, 50% Exam. Students are required to write one essay
of 3000-3500 words and sit a two hour exam where they will have to answer two questions.
A list of essay questions is appended below (p.9). You may choose to answer a question of
your own devising, but you must approve the title with the module convenor at least 3 weeks
before the final deadline. If your chosen title is not confirmed in writing by the module
convenor and you answer an inappropriate question your final mark may be penalized.
The essay is due no later than 12.00 noon on Monday December 1st.
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Penalties apply to any essay that is late without adequate extenuating circumstances.
The penalty will be a deduction of 5 marks for every 24 hours after the deadline in
question. Extenuating Circumstances Forms are available from the School Office. All
applications for extensions must be submitted to the module convenor.
Essays should be submitted on A4 paper stapled in the top-left hand corner. They should
NOT be placed in plastic folders etc. Do not submit essays directly to the module tutors.
TWO COPIES of your essays should be posted in the essay box in the department and
DATE STAMPED by 12 noon on the day of the deadline.
All essays should be word-processed/typed, double spaced and should follow the
presentational guidelines in the School’s Notes for Guidance or follow a recognised style
sheet eg. MLA Handbook or K. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers (both
in the library). Please read the Essay Guidelines booklet provided to you by the School of
American and Canadian Studies. This includes details of: submission procedures, penalties
for late submission of work, extenuating circumstances, proper documentation of source
material, essay structure, and presentation. You will be penalised for failure to follow the
guidelines provided.
SCHOOL OF AMERICAN AND CANADIAN STUDIES REGULATIONS: If you have
a valid reason for missing a deadline for submission of coursework, please consult the tutor
promptly. Extensions may be granted in special circumstances, e.g. in case of family
emergency or illness (medical certificate or other independent written documentation must be
provided). All extensions must be approved by the module convenor. Application forms for
Extenuating Circumstances will be available from the School Office; you must apply within
seven working days of the missed assessment deadline, and provide appropriate
documentation, or your mark will be at risk.
The official School deadline for submission of all outstanding course-work is Wednesday 10
December at 12 noon. Work submitted after this deadline will automatically be penalized
5% absolute standard university scale per working day, e.g. a mark of 64 becomes 59, 54, 49,
and so on until you reach zero. This is a School-wide policy. Extensions after the School
deadline MUST be approved by the School's Examinations Secretary, Jacqui Clay.
Extenuating circumstances forms are available from the School Office. Appropriate
documentary evidence is required. Applications must be made within seven working days
of the missed deadline. A similar procedure must be followed if you miss any of your exams.
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Students are reminded that they are expected to attend ALL lectures, seminars and other
classes on their course. Seminar attendance is compulsory in the School of American &
Canadian Studies. Failure to attend, without notifying the module tutor and giving a valid
reason (illness or exceptional personal circumstances) BEFORE the class, wherever possible,
may (if repeated) result in mark of zero for the module.
N.B. Mistaking the time and venue of a seminar, deadlines for other modules, problems with
transport, and family holidays, are not valid excuses.
DISABILITY AWARENESS: The School of American and Canadian Studies is fully
committed to equal opportunities for disabled students and invites those students who have a
disability to contact the School's Disability Liaison Officer, Jean Darnbrough. Such
consultations are entirely confidential. Alternatively, or in addition, those students may
consult the module tutor.
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LECTURE AND READING PROGRAM
With the exception of the plays by Williams, Miller, Mamet, and Kushner all the
reading for the module is contained in the course reading pack. The reading pack will
be available for purchase from the office of the school of American and Canadian
Studies. You should seek to purchase or borrow copies of The Glass Menagerie,
Death of a Salesman, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Angels in America as soon as
possible (further information about editions of these plays is contained on p.8).
Week One: Commencing 29 September
LECTURE: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN DRAMA
SEMINAR: There is no reading assigned and there will be no seminar session. You
should seek to purchase the module reading pack and the other texts for the course
without delay, if you have not already done so.
Week Two: Commencing 6 October
LECTURE: STAGING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
SEMINAR: A Cure for the Spleen by Jonathan Sewall (1775). The Battle of BunkersHill (1776) by Hugh Henry Brackenridge.
Week Three: Commencing 13 October
LECTURE: THE SEARCH FOR A NATIONAL THEATRE
SEMINAR: The Contrast (1787) by Royall Tyler. André (1798) by William Dunlap
Week Four: Commencing 20 October
LECTURE: MELODRAMA & CLASS CONFLICT IN THE AGE OF JACKSON
SEMINAR: The Drunkard (1844) by William Henry Smith. Account of the Terrific
and Fatal Riot at the New York Astor Place Opera House (1849) by H. M. Ranney.
Week Five: Commencing 27 October
LECTURE: RACE & MINSTRELSY DURING THE CIVIL WAR YEARS
SEMINAR: Oh! Hush! or, The Virginny Cupids! (1833) and “Jim Crow” (1837) by
Thomas Dartmouth Rice. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by George Aiken.
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Week Six: Commencing 3 November
LECTURE: THE NEW WOMAN & THE NEW CENTURY
SEMINAR: A Man’s World (1910) by Rachel Crothers. Overtones (1913) by Alice
Gerstenberg. The Outside (1917) by Susan Glaspell.
Week Seven: Commencing 10 November
LECTURE: SOCIAL REALISM & DEPRESSION-ERA AMERICA
SEMINAR: The Hairy Ape (1921) by Eugene O’Neill. Waiting for Lefty (1935) by
Clifford Odets.
Week Eight: Commencing 17 November
LECTURE: SOCIAL CONFORMITY, MEMORY, & IDENTITY IN POST-WAR
AMERICA
SEMINAR: The Glass Menagerie (1944) by Tennessee Williams. Death of a
Salesman (1949) by Arthur Miller.
Week Nine: Commencing 24 November
LECTURE: THE EMERGENCE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN DRAMA
SEMINAR: A Raisin in the Sun (1959) by Lorraine Hansberry. Dutchman (1964) by
Amiri Baraka.
Week Ten: Commencing 1 December
LECTURE: MASCULINITY & IDENTITY IN REAGAN-ERA AMERICA
SEMINAR: True West (1980) by Sam Shepard. Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) by
David Mamet.
Week Eleven: Commencing 8 December
LECTURE: QUEER THEATRE & AMERICAN IDENTITY IN THE AGE OF
POSTMODERNISM
SEMINAR: Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (1990) by Tony
Kushner.
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RECOMMENDED EDITIONS OF PLAYS NOT IN THE MODULE READING
PACK: Four of the plays we will be studying are not in the module reading pack –
The Glass Menagerie by Tennesssee Williams, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller,
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, and Angels in America by Tony Kushner.
The Hallward Library has a few copies of each of these plays, so most of you will
need to purchase your edition. They are all available from Blackwells, Waterstones or
Amazon, though you should make sure you order them early enough to have read
them by the time we come to discuss them.
1. Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is available in a stand-alone edition from Penguin,
Heinemman or Methuen, and is also included in A Streetcar Named Desire and Other
Plays (Penguin, 2000), and Tennessee Williams: Plays, 1937 – 1955 (Library of
America, 2000).
2. Miller’s Death of a Salesman is available in a stand-alone edition from Penguin or
Heinemman, and is also included in Arthur Miller: Plays, Volume One (Methuen,
1988), The Portable Arthur Miller (Penguin, 2003), and Arthur Miller: Collected
Plays, 1944 – 1961 (Library of America, 2006).
3. Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is available in a stand-alone edition from Methuen
or Evergreen, and is also included in David Mamet: Plays, Volume Three (Methuen,
1996).
4. Kushner’s Angels in America is available in a stand-alone edition from Nick Hern
Books or Theatre Communications Group. The two parts of the play have also, in the
past been published separately. If you do purchase the play in this format make sure
you buy “Part I: Millenium Approaches” AND “Part II: Perestroika”. We will be
studying BOTH parts of the play.
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ESSAY QUESTIONS:
The guidelines and deadline for submitting essays are set out above (p.3). As
indicated there you may write on a question of your own choosing, with the approval
of the module convenor.
1. “From the neoclassical modes popular in the eighteenth century to the
melodramatic techniques which dominated the nineteenth century to the realism and
experimentalism which developed in the twentieth century, genre gives us important
clues about the world of the playwright and how he or she views it” (Jeffrey D.
Mason). Focusing on ONE of the dramatic genres you have encountered, discuss its
most important traits and consider what it tells us about “the world of the playwright.”
Your answer should make reference to at least ONE of the plays you have studied.
2. “Propaganda plays are best thought of as dialogues in the prose or poetic traditions,
providing little if any plot or character development as support for the author’s cause”
(Jason Shaffer). Discuss the relationship between political intention and dramatic
form in at least ONE of the texts you have studied.
3. “Why should our thoughts to distant countries roam, / When each refinement may
be found at home?” (Royall Tyler). Discuss the representation of American national
identity in at least ONE of the texts you have studied.
4. “I began to balance men and women very early – and the more I knew – the more I
tho’t the women had the worst of it” (Rachel Crothers). Discuss the representation of
gender relations in at least ONE of the texts you have studied.
5. “A man’s his job” (David Mamet). Discuss the representation of work in at least
ONE of the texts you have studied.
6. “The tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who
is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing – his sense of personal
dignity” (Arthur Miller). Discuss with reference to at least ONE text you have
studied.
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7. “The fundamental question is: Are we made by history or do we make history”
(Tony Kushner). Discuss with reference to at least ONE of the texts you have studied.
8. Examine the different strategies the playwright uses to make their case in Jonathan
Sewall’s A Cure for the Spleen AND/OR Hugh Henry Brackenridge’s The Battle of
Bunkers-Hill. How successful are these strategies?
9. “The residue of Revolution in early republican drama offers a diminished legacy
for patriotic affirmation” (Jeffrey H. Richards). Discuss the representation of
Revolutionary values in Royall Tyler’s The Contrast AND/OR William Dunlap’s
André.
10. “Through its dramatic universe, characters, languages, and stage devices,
melodrama portrayed society’s fractures, [and] vented the age’s anxieties” (Gary A.
Richardson). Discuss with reference to William Henry Smith’s The Drunkard
AND/OR the Astor Place riot.
11. “The most popular American entertainment form in the antebellum decades [was]
a principal site of struggle in and over the culture of black people” (Eric Lott).
Discuss with reference to George Aiken’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin AND/OR minstrel
shows.
12. Examine the different dramatic styles utilized in any TWO of these texts - Rachel
Crothers’ A Man’s World, Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones, Susan Glaspell’s The
Outside - and discuss how these styles relate to the author’s message.
13. “For all their denunciation of the miseries of the present, the left-wing dramas of
the [Depression] tended to be resolute in their convictions (capitalists are evil,
workers are good) and supremely optimistic in their proferred solution” (Mark
Fearnow). Discuss with reference to Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape AND/OR
Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty.
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14. “It is not enough anymore to know that one is at the mercy of social pressures; it
is necessary to understand that such a sealed fate cannot be accepted” (Arthur Miller).
Discuss the relationship between social conformity and social resistance in Tennessee
Williams’ The Glass Menagerie AND/OR Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
15. “Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman
represent opposing perspectives on the African-American struggle for civil rights.”
Discuss.
16. “A sense of masculinity in crisis pervades American culture in the 1980s.”
Discuss with reference to Sam Shepard’s True West AND/OR David Mamet’s
Glengarry Glen Ross.
17. “‘Queer’ identity has provided a new position from which to challenge norms yet
the instability of identity produces vulnerabilities” (Katherine Cockin). Discuss how
Tony Kushner represents the problems of gay identity in Angels in America.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY - PRIMARY TEXTS:
Other plays by the dramatists we are studying, as well as the works of those not
discussed in the seminars, are available in the Hallward Library. In addition to these
volumes, important American dramas relating to the topics and eras covered by this
module (and mentioned in the lectures) can be found in the following anthologies –
American Plays of the New Woman, ed. Keith Newlin (Chicago: Ivan Dee, 2000).
Best Plays of the Modern American Theatre, ed. John Gassner (New York: Crown,
1947).
Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays Before 1950, ed. Kathy Perkins
(Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1990).
Early American Drama, ed. Jeffrey H. Richards (New York: Penguin, 1997).
Famous American Plays of the 1930s, ed. Harold Clurman (New York: Dell, 1968).
Jump Jim Crow: Lost Plays, Lyrics, and Street Prose of the First Atlantic Popular
Culture, ed. W. T. Lhamon (Cambridge, Harvard UP, 2003).
Major Voices: The Drama of Slavery, ed. Eric Gardner (New Milford: Toby Press,
2005).
Six Early American Plays, 1798 – 1890, ed. William Coyle and Harvey Damasser
(Columbus: Merrill, 1968).
Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, ed. Sue Ellen Case (London:
Routledge, 1996).
An excellent resource for American drama is the electronic database LION (Literature
Online). It contains digital editions of nearly every major play published in America
between 1770 and 1915, and numerous others from the decades following. To access
LION go to www.lion.chadwyck.co.uk, click on Athens Users: Log In, and enter the
relevant passwords. OR go to www.nottingham.ac.uk/is, click on the Information
Gateway tab, then on eLibrary Gateway. Log in using your Nottingham username and
password. Under the heading Sub-category highlight “Electronic Books (55)” and
click Go. Click on to the next page where you’ll find “LION (Literature Online)”
listed. Click on this and you’ll be redirected to the LION homepage where you’ll need
to click on “Athens User: Log In” which will redirect you again and prompt you to reenter your Nottingham username and password. Once you’ve done this you can bring
up the texts you’re looking for by using LION’s search engine.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY - SECONDARY TEXTS:
This bibliography, arranged in four groups according to period, is designed to help
you begin your research into the American theatre, and is by no means complete.
Please note that it only consists of works relating directly to drama and dramatists.
For books relating to the general social/political/cultural contexts of these periods you
should consult the bibliographies from your previous History, Literature, and Thought
& Culture modules. Alternatively, your seminar tutor will be able to advise you on
suitable material.
AMERICAN DRAMA, 1750 - 1800
Agnew, Jean-Christophe. Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theater in AngloAmerican Thought, 1550 – 1750 (New York: Cambridge UP, 1986).
Berkin, Carol. Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Loyalist (New York:
Columbia UP, 1975).
Brown, Jared. The Theatre in America During the Revolution (New York: Cambridge
UP, 1995).
Davis, Peter A. “Puritan Mercantilism and the Politics of Anti-Theatrical Legislation
in Colonial America,” in The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues
from the Colonial Period to the Present, eds. Ron Engle and Tice L. Miller
(New York: Cambridge UP, 1993).
Detsi-Diamanti, Zoe. “Language of Assent: Republican Rhetoric and Metaphors of
National Redemption in American Revolutionary Drama,” in American
Drama 13 (2004): 1-30.
Dunlap, William. A History of the American Theatre (1832 - reprinted New York:
Burt Franklin, 1962).
Evelev, John. “The Contrast: The Problem of Theatricality and Political Crisis in
Postrevolutionary America,” in Early American Literature 31 (1996): 74-97.
Fuller, Randall. “Theaters of the American Revolution: The Valley Forge Cato and
the Meschianza in Their Transcultural Contexts,” in Early American
Literature 34 (1999): 126-46.
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Henderson, Desiree. “Mourning, Masculinity, and the Drama of the American
Revolution,” in American Drama 13 (2004): 31-45.
Litto, Frederic M. “Addison’s Cato in the Colonies,” in William and Mary Quarterly
23 (1966): 431-49.
McNamara, Brooks. “David Douglass and the Beginnings of American Theater
Architecture,” in Winterthur Portfolio 3 (1967): 112-35.
Nathans, Heather. Early American Theatre from the Revolution to Jefferson (New
York: Cambridge UP, 2003).
Oreovicz, Cheryl Z. “Heroic Drama for an Uncertain Age: The Plays of Mercy
Warren,” in Early American Literature and Culture, ed. Kathryn DerounianStodola (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992).
Pressman, Richard S. “Class Positioning and Shays’ Rebellion: Resolving the
Contradictions of The Contrast,” in Early American Literature 21 (1986): 87102.
Rhinehart, Lucy. “‘Manly Exercises’: Post-Revolutionary Performances of Authority
in the Theatrical Career of William Dunlap,” in Early American Literature 36
(2001): 263-94.
------. “A Nation’s ‘Noble Spectacle’: Royall Tyler’s The Contrast as Metatheatrical
Commentary,” in American Drama 3 (1994): 29-52.
Richards, Jeffrey H. Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic
(New York: Cambridge UP, 2005).
-------. Theater Enough: American Culture and the Metaphor of the World Stage,
1607 – 1789 (Durham: Duke UP, 1991).
Richardson, Gary A. “Nationalizing the American Stage: The Drama of Royall Tyler
and
William
Dunlap
as
Post-Colonial
Phenomena,”
in
Making
America/Making American Literature, eds. Robert A. Lee and W. M.
Verhoeven (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996).
Schofield, Mary-Anne. “The Happy Revolution: Colonial Women and the EighteenthCentury Theater,” in Modern American Drama: The Female Canon, ed. June
Schlueter (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1990).
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Shaffer, Jason. “Great Cato’s Descendants: A Genealogy of Colonial Performance,”
in Theatre Survey 44 (2003): 5-28.
------. “Making ‘an Excellent Die’: Death, Mourning, and Patriotism in the
Propaganda Plays of the American Revolution,” in Early American Literature
41 (2006): 1-27.
------. Performing Patriotism: National Identity in the Colonial and Revolutionary
American Theater (Philadelphia: University Pennsylvania Press, 2007)
Silverman, Kenneth. A Cultural History of the American Revolution (New York:
Thomas Crowell, 1976).
Strand, Ginger. “The Many Deaths of Montgomery: Audiences and Pamphlet Plays of
the Revolution,” in American Literary History 9 (1997): 1-20.
------. “The Theater and the Republic: Defining Party on Early Boston’s Rival
Stages,” in Performing America: Cultural Nationalism in American Theater,
eds. Jeffrey Mason and J. Ellen Gainor (Michigan: University of Michigan
Press, 1999).
Teunissen, John J. “Blockheadism and the Propaganda Plays of the American
Revolution,” in Early American Literature 7 (1972): 148-62.
Wilmer, S. E. Theatre, Society and the Nation: Staging American Identities (New
York: Cambridge UP, 2002).
Withington, Ann Fairfax. Toward a More Perfect Union: Virtue and the Formation of
American Republics (New York: Oxford UP, 1991).
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AMERICAN DRAMA, 1800 – 1900
Bank, Rosemarie K. Theatre Culture in America, 1825 – 1860 (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1997).
------. “Hustlers in the House: The Bowery Theatre as a Mode of Historical
Information,” in The American Stage, eds. Ron Engle and Tice Miller (New
York: Cambridge UP, 1993).
Barrett, Lawrence. Edwin Forrest (Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1881).
Berthold, Dennis. “Class Acts: The Astor Place Riots and Melville’s ‘The Two
Temples’,” in American Literature 71 (1999): 429-61.
Booth, Michael R. “The Drunkard’s Progress: Nineteenth-Century Temperance
Drama,” in Dalhousie Review 44 (1964): 205-12.
Brooks, Daphne. Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom,
1850 – 1910 (Durham: Duke UP, 2006).
Brooks, Peter. The Melodramatic Imagination (New Haven: Yale UP, 1976).
Chiles, Katy L. “Blackened Irish and Brownfaced Amerindians: Constructions of
American Whiteness in Dion Boucicault’s The Octoroon,” in Nineteenth
Century Theatre and Film 31 (2004): 28-50.
Cliff, Nigel. The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in NineteenthCentury America (New York: Random House, 2007).
Cockrell, Dale. Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World
(New York: Cambridge UP, 1997).
Dudden, Faye. Women in the American Theatre: Actresses and Audiences, 1790 –
1870 (New Haven: Yale UP, 1994).
Elam, Harry and David Krasner. Eds. African-American Performance and Theater
History (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001).
Flynn, Joyce. “Melting Plots: Patterns of Racial and Ethnic Amalgamation in
American Drama Before Eugene O’Neill,” in American Quarterly 38 (1986):
417-38.
Frick, John W. Theatre, Culture, and Temperance Reform in Nineteenth-Century
America (New York: Cambridge UP, 2003).
Grimsted, David. Melodrama Unveiled: American Theater and Culture, 1800 – 1850
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).
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Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class
(New York: Oxford UP, 1993).
McArthur, Judith N. “Demon Rum on the Boards: Temperance Melodrama and the
Tradition of Antebellum Reform,” in Journal of the Early Republic 9 (1989):
517-40.
Mallett, Mark E. “The Game of Politics: Edwin Forrest and the Jackson Democrats,”
in Journal of American Drama and Theatre 5 (1993): 31-46.
Mason, Jeffrey D. Melodrama and the Myth of America (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1993).
------. “Poison it with Rum; Or, Validation and Delusion: Antebellum Temperance
Drama as Cultural Method,” in Pacific Coast Philology 25 (1990): 96-105.
McConachie, Bruce A. Melodramatic Formations: American Theatre and Society,
1820 – 1870 (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1992).
-----.
“New York Operagoing, 1825-50: Creating an Elite Social Ritual,” in
American Music 6 (1988): 181-92
-----. “Out of the Kitchen and into the Marketplace: Normalizing Uncle Tom’s Cabin
for the Antebellum Stage,” in Journal of American Drama and Theatre 3
(1991): 5-28.
-----.
“The Theatre of Edwin Forrest and Jacksonian Hero Worship,” in When They
Weren’t Doing Shakespeare: Actors and Culture on the Nineteenth-Century
Stage, eds. Judith L. Fisher and Stephen Watt (Athens: University of Georgia
Press, 1989).
McDowell, John H. “‘I’m Going There, Uncle Tom’: Original Scenery, Documents,
and a Promptbook Production of Uncle Tom,” in Theatre Studies 24 (1977):
119-38.
McNamara, Brooks. The New York Concert Saloon: The Devil’s Own Nights
(Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002).
Meer, Sarah. Uncle Tom Mania: Slavery, Minstrelsy and Transatlantic Culture in the
1850s (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005).
Meserve, Walter J. Heralds of Promise: The Drama of the American People During
the Age of Jackson, 1829 – 1849 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986).
Quinn, Arthur Hobson. A History of the American Drama: From the Beginning to the
Civil War (New York: Appleton, 1943).
Rahill, Frank. The World of Melodrama (University Park: Penn State UP, 1967).
17
Rebhorn, Matthew. “Edwin Forrest’s Redding Up: Elocution, Theater, and the
Performance of the Frontier,” in Comparative Drama 40 (2006): 455-81.
Roach, Joseph. “Slave Spectacles and Tragic Octoroons: A Cultural Genealogy of
Antebellum Performance,” in Theatre Survey 33 (1992): 167-87.
Saxton, Alexander. “Blackface Minstrelsy and Jacksonian Ideology,” in American
Quarterly 27 (1975): 3-28.
Wilmer, S. E. Theatre, Society and the Nation: Staging American Identities (New
York: Cambridge UP, 2002).
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AMERICAN THEATRE, 1900 – 1945
Abramson, Doris E. Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre, 1925 – 1959 (New
York: Columbia UP, 1969).
Alexander, Doris M. “Eugene O’Neill as Social Critic,” in American Quarterly 6
(1954): 349-63.
Barber, Rytch. “American Expressionism and the New Woman: Glaspell, Treadwell,
Bonner
and
a
Dramaturgy
of
Social
Conscience,”
in
Disclosing
Intertextualities: The Stories, Plays, and Novels of Susan Glaspell, eds.
Martha C. Carpentier and Barbara Ozieblo (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006).
Bigsby, Christopher. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama:
1900 - 1940 (New York: Cambridge UP, 1982).
Broussard, Louis. American Drama: Contemporary Allegory from Eugene O’Neill to
Tennessee Williams (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962).
Chansky, Dorothy. “Alice Gerstenberg and the ‘Experimental Trap’,” in Midwestern
Miscellany 30 (2002): 21-34.
Chothia, Jean. Forging a Language: A Study of the Plays of Eugene O’Neill (New
York: Cambridge UP, 1979).
Chura, Patrick J. “Vital Contact: Eugene O’Neill and the Working Class,” in
Twentieth Century Literature 49 (2003): 520-46.
Ciancio, Ralph A. “Richard Wright, Eugene O’Neill, and the Beast in the Skull,” in
Modern Language Studies 23 (1993): 45-59.
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