9%OFF
Stock image for illustration purposes only - book cover, edition or condition may vary.
The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard. From South Africa to the World.
Albert Wertheim
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard. From South Africa to the World.
paperback. Detailed analysis of the stage plays of South African playwright Athol Fugard. Num Pages: 296 pages, 24 b&w photos, 1 bibliog., 1 index. BIC Classification: 1HFMS; 2AB; DD; DSBH; DSG. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 165 x 235 x 20. Weight in Grams: 478.
"Albert Wertheim's study of Fugard's plays is both extremely insightful and beautifully written—a book that held my attention from beginning to end. It was a pleasure to read! Wertheim succeeds in communicating the greatness of Fugard as a playwright, actor, and director. He also conveys well what Fugard has learned from other plays and dramatists. Thus, he places Fugard's works not so much in a South African context as in a theatrical context. He also illuminates his interpretations with the help of Fugard's manuscripts, previously available only in South Africa. This book is aimed not only at teachers, students, ... Read morescholars, and performers of Fugard but also at the person who simply loves going to see a Fugard play at the theatre.
—Nancy Topping Bazin, Eminent Scholar and Professor Emeritus, Old Dominion University
Considered one of the most brilliant, powerful, and theatrically astute of modern dramatists, South African playwright Athol Fugard is best known for The Blood Knot,"MASTER HAROLD" . . . and the boys, A Lesson from Aloes, and Sizwe Bansi Is Dead. The energy and poignancy of Fugard's work have their origins in the institutionalized racism of his native South Africa, and more recently in the issues facing a new South Africa after apartheid. In The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard, Albert Wertheim analyzes the form and content of Fugard's dramas, showing that they are more than a dramatic chronicle of South African life and racial problems. Beginning with the specifics of his homeland, Fugard's plays reach out to engage more far-reaching issues of human relationships, race and racism, and the power of art to evoke change. The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard demonstrates how Fugard's plays enable us to see that what is performed on stage can also be performed in society and in our lives; how, inverting Shakespeare, Athol Fugard makes his stage the world.
Show Less
Product Details
Publisher
Indiana University Press United States
Place of Publication
Bloomington, IN, United States
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
About Albert Wertheim
Albert Wertheim is Professor of English and of Theatre and Drama at Indiana University. He has published widely on modern and classic British and American drama and on post-colonial writing; directed several NEH seminars on politics in the theatre and on new literatures from Africa, the West Indies, and the Pacific; and served on the editorial boards of American Drama, ... Read moreTheatre Survey, South African Theatre Journal, and Westerly. Show Less
Reviews for The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard. From South Africa to the World.
Wertheim (Indiana Univ.) identifies South African playwright Athol Fugard as arguably the most distinguished living English—language playwright. Some of Fugard's best—known plays include The Blood Knot, Sizwe Bans Is Dead, A Lesson from Aloes, and Master Harold .. and the Boys, and Wertheim notes in his introduction that he has seen performances of almost all of Fugard's canon (the exceptions: ... Read moreNo—Good Friday, Nongogo, and Dimetos). The subject of Fugard's plays is often the human toll [that] racism leaves in its wake, wherever it is practiced. According to Wertheim, one of the larger, existential truths of Fugard's plays is the capacity of humankind not only to endure but to transcend its tragic fate; Fugard's parabolic style enables him to provide a general insight open to many applications. Wertheim's study has two particular strengths (among many): its insight into the evolution of the playwright, especially the influence of Albert Camus, Bertolt Brecht, and Samuel Beckett on Fugard's canon, and its illumination of the symbolic props in the plays, e.g., the shoes and stockings in People Are Living There. An authoritative work superbly written, this book is well suited to upper—division undergraduates and above.
T. L. Jackson
Choice
Wertheim's study has two particular strengths (among many): its insight into the evolution of the playwright, especially the influence of Albert Camus, Bertolt Brecht, and Samuel Beckett on Fugard's canon, and its illumination of the symbolic props in the plays, e.g., the shoes and stockings in People Are Living There. An authoritative work superbly written, this book is well suited to upper-division undergraduates and above.November 2001
Choice
Show Less