Description

• Title:
  Geographic Transgression and Epic Theatre: The Subversiveness of the Pastoral Idyll in Edward Bond’s Lear
• Creator:
  Schardt, Andreas
• Contributor:
  Kazik, Joanna;
  Mirowska, Paulina;
  University of Heidelberg;
  Andreas Schardt holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. His dissertation deals with the intersection of the Gothic and the pastoral mode in a selected body of English and American texts from the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. He has taught courses on presentation skills and English literature at the University of Mannheim and the University of Heidelberg. Among his further research interests are the theory of genres and modes, dystopian fiction, contemporary drama and the reception of antiquity in the European literary tradition.
• Description:
  The pastoral has often been defined in terms of an idyllic retreat where man can regain his former unity with nature, from which he has been alienated as a consequence of urban life. At the same time, however, the pastoral is not merely escapist, but explores the very problems of the city, contemporary society, politics and the human condition in general. It can thus be called a subversive form, serving as a vehicle to question contemporary values, roles and morals by offering a context where these issues can be freely scrutinised and criticised. A similar interest in contemporary affairs underlies the concept of the epic theatre, which, by definition, intends to create an awareness of existing social plights in the audience, thus aspiring to political reforms. This article analyses the overlap between pastoral elements and the notion of the epic theatre using Edward Bond’s Lear (1971). Not only will it be demonstrated how Bond uses the king’s retreat into a pastoral idyll to convey his views about the origins of extreme behaviours like cruelty and violence in modern societies but also to what extent this attempt at a redefinition of received standards fits the notion of the epic theatre. Contrary to the opinion expressed by some scholars that the pastoral has become obsolete in modern times, this paper hence argues that this mode is a broad and flexible category that has survived up to the dramatic tradition of the twentieth century and is, due to its oscillation between evasiveness and subversiveness, capable of being incorporated in such a “radical” concept as Brecht’s theatre.;
  Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00.
• Object availability:
  free access
• Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 ;
  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Międzynarodowe
• Date:
  2019.06.10;
  2013
• Type:
  Book chapter
• Language:
  English
• Format:
  application/pdf;
  image/jpeg
• Publisher:
  Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Relation:
  Kazik J., Mirowska P. (red.), Studies in English Drama and Poetry vol. 3. Reading subversion and transgression, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2013;;
  Studies in English Drama and Poetry;;
  3
• Subject:
  geographic transgression;
  epic theatre;
  subversiveness;
  Pastoral Idyll;
  Edward Bond’s Lear
• Identifier:
  Schardt A., Geographic Transgression and Epic Theatre: The Subversiveness of the Pastoral Idyll in Edward Bond’s Lear, [w:] Studies in English Drama and Poetry vol. 3. Reading subversion and transgression, Kazik J., Mirowska P. (red.), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2013, s. 55-66, doi: 10.18778/7525-994-0.05;
  978-83-7525-994-0;
  http://hdl.handle.net/11089/28809 ;
  10.18778/7525-994-0.05
• Data provider:
  Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Can I use it?:
  seek permission
• Type:
  text