Oscar Wilde's Society Plays

by Michael Y. Bennett (Editor)

Overview

As the first collection of essays about Oscar Wilde's comedies, the contributors re-evaluate Oscar Wilde's society plays as 'comedies of manners" to see whether this is actually an apt way to read Wilde's most emblematic plays. Focusing on both the context and the texts, the collection locates Wilde both in his social and literary contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349568277
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	08/06/2015
Edition description:	1st ed. 2015
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jerusha McCormack, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China Petra Dierkes-Thrun, Stanford University, USA Joseph Bristow, University of California, Los Angeles, USA Melissa Knox, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany Steven Price, Bangor University, UK Richard Allen Cave, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK Helena Gurfinkel, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USA Helen Davies, Teesside University, UK S.I. Salamensky, University of Louisville, USA

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Importance of Laughing in Earnest; Michael Y. Bennett
PART I: CONTEXTS
1. Wit in Ernest: Wilde's Irish Word-Play; Jerusha McCormack
2. The Tragicomedies of Oscar Wilde: A Wilde Response to Melodrama; Michael Y. Bennett
3. Oscar Wilde's Unfinished Society Plays: Mr. and Mrs. Daventry, A Wife's Tragedy, and Love Is Law; Joseph Bristow
4. Wilde's Comedic Takes on the New Woman: A Comparison with Ibsen and Shaw; Petra Dierkes-Thrun
5. Three Comedies and a Funeral: The Endgame of The Importance of Being Earnest; Melissa Knox
PART II: TEXTS
6. Deconstructive Strategies in Wilde's Social Comedies: From Melodrama to Deconstruction; Steven Price
7. Earnest in Name, But How Earnest in Manner?: Acting in Wilde's Comedy; Richard Allen Cave
8. ". . . Would You Kindly Inform Me Who I Am?": Wilde's Comedies of Manners as Tragedies; Helena Gurfinkel
9. "You will call me sister, will you not?": Friendship, Solidarity, and Conflict between Women in Wilde's Society Plays; Helen Davies
10. Modern Ontologics and the Impotence of Being Earnest; S. I. Salamensky

Editorial Reviews

"Oscar Wilde's Society Plays is brilliant in its richness of points of view on why this playwright's comedies of manners are so funny and so serious at the same time. Bennett has assembled discussions by scholars well-known and new who boldly, convincingly, and entertainingly mine Wilde's texts and contexts, producing a book that is a feast of wit and wisdom in its own right." - Robert Combs, Professor, English, George Washington University, USA

From the Publisher