McEvoy, SeanUnknown
Springer International Publishing (Cham, Switzerland , 2021) (eng) English9783030627119Unknown1st ed.DRAMATISTS, ENGLISH; UnknownJez Butterworth is undoubtedly one of the most popular and commercially successful playwrights to have emerged in Britain in the early twenty-first century. This book, only the second so far to have been written on him, argues that the power of his most acclaimed work comes from a reinvigoration of traditional forms of tragedy expressed in a theatricalized working-class language. Butterworth’s most developed tragedies invoke myth and legend as a figurative resistance to the flat and crushing instrumentalism of contemporary British political and economic culture. In doing so they summon older, resonant narratives which are both popular and high-cultural in order to address present cultural crises in a language and in a form which possess wide appeal. Tracing the development of Butterworth’s work chronologically from Mojo (1995) to The Ferryman (2017), each chapter offers detailed critical readings of a single play, exploring how myth and legend become significant in a variety of ways to Butterworth’s presentation of cultural and personal crisis.
Physical dimension
1 online resource (vii, 217 p.)Unknownill.
Summary / review / table of contents
1. Introduction --
2. Yakkety Yak: Mojo (1995) --
3. Exclusion from the Garden: The Night Heron (2002) --
4. Homage: The Winterling (2006) --
5. Drought: Parlour Song (2008) --
6. The Enchanted Wood: Jerusalem (2009) --
7. Time, Myth and Power: The River (2012) --
8. Allusion: The Ferryman (2017).