Bernard Shaw and St. John Hankin: Happy Endings

by Christopher Wixson

Overview

“This original study will no doubt draw attention to St. John Hankin’s work, which may in turn receive further scrutiny from scholars, students, and theatre practitioners.”

Michel Pharand, Queen's University

This book proposes a vibrant intertextual dialogue between St. John Hankin’s manners comedies and what are considered Bernard Shaw’s “minor” Edwardian comedies and, after the war, some of his most experimental “extravagant” plays. Engaging thematic topics ranging from philanthropy and parenting to marital alliances and comic endings, their dramaturgy was truly in conversation over form and content as they re-purposed one another in a vital wrangling to direct the creative evolution of modern British comedy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031902208
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	06/07/2025
Series:	Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries
Pages:	241
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Christopher Wixson is Professor of English and Theatre at Eastern Illinois University, USA. His scholarly writing has appeared (in most cases, more than once) in Modern Drama, Studies in English Literature, the Journal of Modern Literature, Comparative Drama, ELT, Notes on Contemporary Literature, Pamphlet, The Harold Pinter Review, SHAW, The Shavian, American Drama, and The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama. He is the author of Bernard Shaw and Modern Advertising: Prophet Motives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and Bernard Shaw: A Very Short Introduction (2020). Since 2017, he has served as the general editor of SHAW: The Journal of Bernard Shaw Studies.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction: Bernard Shaw and St. John Hankin.- Chapter 2. Predatory Types.- Chapter 3. Missionary Positions.- Chapter 4. How Mothers Are Made.- Chapter 5. Bungled Burgles and Happy Cuckoos.- Chapter 6. Tyrants, Mothers, and Daughters.