Synopses & Reviews
Although often dismissed as a minor offshoot of the better-known German movement, expressionism on the American stage represents a critical phase in the development of American dramatic modernism. Situating expressionism within the context of early twentieth century American culture, Walker demonstrates how playwrights who wrote in this mode were responding both to new communications technologies and to the perceived threat they posed to the embodied act of meaning. At a time when mute bodies gesticulated on the silver screen, ghostly voices emanated from tin horns, and inked words stamped out the personality of the hand that composed them, expressionist playwrights began to represent these new cultural experiences by disarticulating the theatrical languages of bodies, voices, and words. In doing so, they not only innovated a new dramatic form, but redefined playwriting from a theatrical craft to a literary art form, heralding the birth of American dramatic modernism.
Synopsis
It has been commonly perceived that the American expressionist movement during the first two decades of the twentieth century was a minor offshoot of the better-known German expressionist movement. However, less-explored is the direct influence on American theatre of the national cultural and social environment. Walker argues that American expressionist drama developed in response to new technologies, and to popular fears about them. The book aims to correct a critical misunderstanding that has relegated American expressionism to a minor footnote in the history of modern drama.
Synopsis
A study of the influence of new technologies on early twentieth century American drama.
About the Author
Julia Walker is Assistant Professor of English and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.