Mention southern drama at a cocktail party or in an American literature survey, and you may hear cries for "Stella!" or laments for "gentleman callers." Yet southern drama depends on much more than a menagerie of highly strung spinsters and steel magnolias.
Charles Watson explores this field from its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century roots through the southern Literary Renaissance and Tennessee Williams's triumphs to the plays of Horton Foote, winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize. Such well known modern figures as Lillian Hellman and DuBose Heyward earn fresh looks, as does Tennessee Williams's changing depiction of the Southfrom sensitive analysis to outraged indictmentin response to the Civil Rights Movement.
Watson links the work of the early Charleston dramatists and of Espy Williams, first modern dramatist of the South, to later twentieth-century drama. Strong heroines in plays of the Confederacy foreshadow the spunk of Tennessee Williams's Amanda Wingfield. Claiming that Beth Henley matches the satirical brilliance of Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor, Watson connects her zany humor to 1840s New Orleans farces.
With this work, Watson has at last answered the call for a single-volume, comprehensive history of the South's dramatic literature. With fascinating detail and seasoned perception, he reveals the rich heritage of southern drama.

Watson, Charles S.

United States, United States of America

Lexington, Kentucky, 1997

First Edition, PT, 1997

1st Edition, 1997

Includes bibliographical references (p. 218-254) and index.

Charles Watson explores this field from its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century roots through the Southern Literary Renaissance and Tennessee Williams's triumphs to the plays of Horton Foote, winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize. Such well known modern figures as Lillian Hellman and DuBose Heyward earn fresh looks, as does Tennessee Williams's changing depiction of the South - from sensitive analysis to outraged indictment - in response to the Civil Rights movement.
Two chapters devoted to drama by southern blacks begin with slave-born William Wells Brown, author of two plays as well as Clotelle, the first novel by an African American. Watson recognizes the trail-blazing plays of Zora Neale Hurston and closely examines the extensive output of Randolph Edmonds, author of forty-seven plays and a central force in encouraging black dramatic writing and production.

Includes one chapter on early Charleston drama and one chapter on DuBose Heyward

2023-06-28