Class, culture and tragedy in the plays of Jez Butterworth 1st ed.

Author

• McEvoy, Sean

Additional Author(s)

-

Publisher

Cham, Switzerland : Springer International Publishing, 2021

Language

English

ISBN

9783030627119

Series

Subject(s)

• BUTTERWORTH, JEZ
• DRAMATISTS, ENGLISH

Notes

. .

Abstract

Jez 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

Number of Page(s)

1 online resource (vii, 217 p.)

Dimension

-

Other Desc.

ill.

Summary / Review / Table of Content

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).

Exemplar(s)

#	Accession No.	Call Number	Location	Status
1.	00752/21	822.92 McE C	Online !	Available