Date of Completion
5-4-2018
Embargo Period
4-23-2028
Major Advisor
Mary Burke
Associate Advisor
Charles Mahoney
Associate Advisor
Penelope Pelizzon
Field of Study
English
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Open Access
Open Access
Abstract
“The Politics of Voice in Twentieth-Century Verse Drama” explores the generic and political implications of verse drama, a genre that disappeared in the eighteenth century, only to reemerge in the twentieth century as a hybrid of lyric poetry and dramatic performance. Verse drama, given its unique position between two genres with different (sometimes opposing) conceptions of voice, allows writers to experiment with voice both formally and thematically. This study brings together plays by W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Dorothy Sayers, Djuna Barnes, John Arden, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Ntozake Shange, Joyelle McSweeney, and Khadijah Queen. These writers reinvent existing forms like the Greek chorus or create new forms like the radio poem to comment on issues of voice and representation, not only through their content, but also in the very structure of the play. This formal experimentation allows writers to respond creatively and subtly to contemporary political crises, including fascism, colonialism, and sectarian violence.
“The Politics of Voice in Twentieth-Century Verse Drama” explores the generic and political implications of verse drama, a genre that disappeared in the eighteenth century, only to reemerge in the twentieth century as a hybrid of lyric poetry and dramatic performance. Verse drama, given its unique position between two genres with different (sometimes opposing) conceptions of voice, allows writers to experiment with voice both formally and thematically. This study brings together plays by W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Dorothy Sayers, Djuna Barnes, John Arden, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Ntozake Shange, Joyelle McSweeney, and Khadijah Queen. These writers reinvent existing forms like the Greek chorus or create new forms like the radio poem to comment on issues of voice and representation, not only through their content, but also in the very structure of the play. This formal experimentation allows writers to respond creatively and subtly to contemporary political crises, including fascism, colonialism, and sectarian violence.
Recommended Citation
Berry, Sarah, "The Politics of Voice in Twentieth-Century Verse Drama" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 1830.
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/dissertations/1830