Love in Contemporary British Drama

Korbinian Stöckl

Published by De Gruyter 2021

Love in Contemporary British Drama

Traditions and Transformations of a Cultural Emotion

Korbinian Stöckl

Volume 31 in the series Contemporary Drama in English Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110714708

Overview
Contents

About this book

Despite the recent turn to affects and emotions in the humanities and despite the unceasing popularity of romantic and erotic love as a motif in fictional works of all genres, the subject has received surprisingly little attention in academic studies of contemporary drama. Love in Contemporary British Drama reflects the appeal of love as a topic and driving force in dramatic works with in-depth analyses of eight pivotal plays from the past three decades.
Following an interdisciplinary and historical approach, the study collects and condenses theories of love from philosophy and sociology to derive persisting discourses and to examine their reoccurrence and transformation in contemporary plays. Special emphasis is put on narratives of love’s compensatory function and precariousness and on how modifications of these narratives epitomise the peculiarities of emotional life in the social and cultural context of the present.
Based on the assumption that drama is especially inclined to draw on shared narratives for representations of love, the book demonstrates that love is both a window to remnants of the past in the present and a proper subject matter for drama in times in which the suitability of the dramatic form has been questioned.

Author information

Korbinian Stöckl, Augsburg University, Germany.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
1 Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. The Making of Romantic/Erotic Love: Traditions and Transformations
2 Philosophy of Love: Selections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3 Romantic Love in Sociology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
Part II. Analysis: Love in Contemporary British Drama
4 “Why isn’t love enough?” Commitment in Patrick Marber’s Closer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
5 “if you’re not with me I feel less like a person”: Sex, Drugs, and the Myth of Self-Sufficiency in Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
6 Autopsies of Love: Sarah Kane’s Erotic Plays Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
7 “Not saying I don’t want things though”: Emotional and Material Desires in Dennis Kelly’s Love and Money Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
8 “Love at first sight and the lost city of Atlantis”: Penelope Skinner’s Eigengrau, Or ‘A Fairy Tale of Blind Love’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
9 “We don’t need ties”: Rebellious Love in Mike Bartlett’s Love, Love, Love Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
10 “this poetical … shit”: Coming to Terms with Love in debbie tucker green’s a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (‐noun) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
11 Coda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	274
Index of subjects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286
Index of authors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics (English Literature, Theatre Studies, Cultural Studies), Libraries, Institutes. .
Pages
- Front matter: 9
- Main content: 294
Keywords: Contemporary Drama; British Drama; English Literature; Love

eBook

Published: January 18, 2021
ISBN: 9783110714708

Hardcover

Published: January 18, 2021
ISBN: 9783110714647

Paperback

Published: December 19, 2022
ISBN: 9783111111230