T. S. Eliot's Drama
Critical Perspectives
Edited by Fabio L. Vericat, Dídac Llorens-Cubedo
- Tunes into a consolidating academic trend of re-examining Eliot’s drama after years of neglect
- Approaches Eliot’s plays not merely as literary texts but also as stage theatre, considering aspects of performance and production
- Draws on recently published editions of Eliot’s Complete Prose and his Letters
- Incorporates key new archival material to the field of Eliot studies, principally the Emily Hale Letters recently unsealed at Princeton
T. S. Eliot’s writings for the stage have never competed critically on equal terms with his poetry despite his openly stated conviction that the greatest poetry is invariably dramatic and should speak to all audiences. The essays contained in this volume revolve around the question of Eliot’s life-long interest in and later development of verse drama incorporating the latest research and archival resources – most importantly, his recently published letters to Emily Hale. This book fills a gaping hole in the critical appreciation of Eliot’s commitment to drama from the mid-1920s to the end of his career by principally exploring the tensions in his work between the playwright and the poet. It does so by presenting Eliot’s drama as a fruitful ground for the newest critical approaches about an artist who has too long been a prisoner of his persona as the leading poet of Modernism.
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations for T. S. Eliot’s Works
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: The Drama of the Poet
Fabio L. Vericat and Dídac Llorens-Cubedo
Part I. Avant-Garde
1. T. S. Eliot’s Sweeney Agonistes and ‘a scenario for a ballet’
Gabriela M. Minden
2. ‘Don’t make it arty’: Sweeney Agonistes as Closet Drama and the Fashioning of the Modernist Playwright
Fabio L. Vericat
Part II. Ritual
3. A ‘disturbance of the quiet seasons’: Eco-Spiritual Renewal in Murder in the Cathedral
Shannon McClernon
4. Ancient Feast and Urban Sacrifice in The Cocktail Party
Christina J. Lambert
Part III. The Stage
5. The Rock on Page and Stage
Parker T. Gordon
6. ‘Not pulpit oratory’: T. S. Eliot’s Audience, Christianity and The Family Reunion
Nicoletta Asciuto
Part IV. Turn
7. Late to The Family Reunion
or, the Loop in Time
Anthony Cuda
8. ‘Where is he going?’: The Family Reunion, Emily Hale and the Uses of Hope
Patrick R. Query
Part V. Popularity
9. A Yorkshire Tragedy? The Family Reunion, the Twentieth-Century Crime Play and Elizabethan Domestic Tragedy
Alex Davis
10. The Playwright’s Progress: Rethinking T. S. Eliot’s Comedies
Dídac Llorens-Cubedo
Index
The first major study of Eliot’s drama in at least a decade, this timely volume revitalizes our understanding of his plays with new archival material, such as his letters to Emily Hale, and fresh approaches including dance history, ecocriticism, and food studies.
