Narrating the Past through Theatre: Four Crucial Texts

98 Pages·2013·0.569 MB·English

by  Michael Y. Bennett (auth.)

Narrating the Past through Th eatre
DOI: 10.1057/9781137275424
Also by Michael Bennett
REASSESSING THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD: Camus, Beckett,
Ionesco, Genet, and Pinter
WORDS, SPACE, AND THE AUDIENCE: Th e Th eatrical Tension
between Empiricism and Rationalism
REFIGURING OSCAR WILDE’S SALOME (editor)
EUGENE O’NEILL’S ONE-ACT PLAYS: New Critical
Perspectives (co-editor)
DOI: 10.1057/9781137275424
Narrating the Past
through Th eatre: Four
Crucial Texts
Michael Y. Bennett
DOI: 10.1057/9781137275424
narrating the past through theatre
Copyright © Michael Y. Bennett, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013ISBN 978–1–137–27541–7
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-44616-2 ISBN 978-1-137-27542-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137275424
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
First edition: 2013
www.palgrave.com/pivot
To Mr. Herbert Pagani, my 10th and 12th grade English teacher,
to whom I committed in 12th grade that I would dedicate my fi ft h book
(it was supposed to be my fi ft h book of poetry, but dramatic criticism
will have to do)
And to all of my other infl uential and inspirational teachers, professors,
and mentors, each of whom deserve their own book dedication for how
they have helped and shaped me:
Joseph Black, Nicholas Bromell, Jeff rey J. Cohen, Robert Combs, Joseph
Donohue, Jill Kasle, Robert McRuer, Mrs. Marcia Pasco (8th grade), Joseph
Skerrett, Jenny S. Spencer, and Adam Zucker
DOI: 10.1057/9781137275424
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Modern Drama and the
Translation of History’s Narratives 
 Danton’s Memory: Structural
Impossibilities in Büchner’s
Danton’s Death 
 Salome’s Tale—Iokanaan’s Telling—
Wilde’s Retelling: Historical Relativity
and (Un)specifi city in Wilde’s Salome 
 Galileo’s Narrative: Translating
History’s “Conditions” in Brecht’s
Life of Galileo 
Conclusion: For All Seasons—Th e
Particulars and the Universals of Man
in Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons 
Bibliography 
Index 
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137275424
Acknowledgments
Th is book was conceived toward the beginning of my graduate
studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and was
initiated both by serving as a Teaching Assistant for Joseph
Donohue’s “Modern American Drama” and writing a paper on
Danton’s Death for Christine Cooper’s graduate seminar, “19th
Century Discourse and the French Revolution.” Th erefore, I
am truly indebted to both Donohue and Cooper for helping to
implant and develop my ideas from their infancy. I would also
like to thank readers of this book—J. Chris Westgate, Donald
Jellerson, Rebecca S. Hogan, Joseph Hogan, and Jonathon
Walter—who provided me with invaluable feedback.
Th anks to Rodopi, Palgrave Macmillan, and the Journal
of Th eatre and Drama for allowing me to reprint parts of
Chapter 2 that fi rst appeared elsewhere: Michael Y. Bennett,
“A Wilde Performance: Bunburying and ‘Bad Faith” in
Michael Y. Bennett (ed.) Salome and Th e Importance of Being
Earnest,” Refi guring Oscar Wilde’s Salome, Amsterdam: Rodopi,
2011, 177–179, reproduced with permission of Rodopi; Michael
Y. Bennett, Words, Space and the Audience: Th e Th eatrical
Tension between Empiricism and Rationalism (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 54–55, reproduced with permission
of Palgrave Macmillan; and Michael Y. Bennett, “Brecht in the
Wilde: Salome’s Liminal Spaces and the Storyteller,” Journal of
Th eatre and Drama 7/8 (2001/2002): 145–158, reproduced with
permission of the Journal of Th eatre and Drama.
Also, the section in Chapter 2, Salome: Th e Reading, is
reprinted from elsewhere: Copyright © 2004. Th e Johns
Hopkins University Press. Th is article fi rst appeared in
Th eatre Journal 56.2 (May 2004): 305–306.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137275424 vii
DOI: 10.1057/9781137275424
Introduction:
Modern Drama and
the Translation of
History’s Narratives
Abstract: In order to make sense of the modern “history play,”
the Introduction presents the three central assertions of this
book. First, this Introduction explores the argument that the
narration of the past is largely an act of translation. Second,
given that the three chapters in this book are concerned with
the historical timeframe related to the telos (which will be
explained in more detail), I argue that we must understand
these playwrights acting as “modern” historical translators
who fuse the past with the future and, like a translation, say
something about their moment in time, bringing past, present,
and future together in the tense of always : discussing each
play’s synchronic limitation to a strict time and place (related
to its specifi c historical moment) as well as its diachronic
timelessness (speaking to the human condition). And third,
modern history plays depart from, especially, early modern
history plays in that these modern reincarnations of the form
focus not on commemoration (like those in the early modern
period) but use history as a means of critique and a way to
look at and act in the future.
Bennett, Y. Michael. Narrating the Past through Th eatre:
Four Crucial Texts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
doi: 10.1057/9781137275424.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137275424 