The Art of Drama

Ronald Peacock

Based on a wide study of European literature and drama, this book analyzes drama in the context of art in general. It is especially concerned with the modern drama, the new forms of which, in the verse drama, the revival of myth, surrealist fantasy, and poésie de théâtre, are here linked with the vast movement of much modern art away from realism towards symbolic styles. It is a sequel to the author's The Poet in the Theatre.

What is art? And what sort of art is drama? Pursuing this double question the author puts forward first a theory of art images and their relation to experience, and of the metaphorical functioning of all imagery in aesthetic contexts, in order to find a principle common to the arts. And secondly, taking his cue from a word of Coleridge's, he examines characteristic 'intertextures of imagery and language as a way of understanding composite arts like drama. and justifying the existence of the literary kinds and forms. His method, and his attack on a broad aesthetic front, have enabled the author to define more precisely the essential features of drama as an independent art: his views will stimulate discussion among all those interested in the arts today.

Acting

1956

Routledge & Kegan Paul

English