1、英语国家概况DramaAmerican Literature: DramaIINTRODUCTIONAmerican Literature: Drama,literatureintended for performance, written by Americans in the English language. American drama begins in the American colonies in the 17th century and continues to the present. See also Drama and Dramatic Arts.MostAmerica
2、nplaysof the 18th and 19th centuries strongly reflected British influence. In fact, no New York City theater season presented more American plays than British plays until 1910. The reasons behind this phenomenon are complex, but a common language and the ready availability of British plays and Briti
3、sh actors offer the most obvious explanation.AlthoughtheBritishrepertory dominated the American stage for so long, American drama had begun to diverge from British drama by the time of Andrew Jacksons presidency, from 1828 to 1836. British plays, which typically reflected the attitudes and manners o
4、f the upper classes, were by then in conflict with more egalitarian American values. Despite this growing divergence, British actors, theater managers, and plays continued to cross the Atlantic Ocean with regularity, and most American plays copied British models until the early 20th century. For thi
5、s reason some critics claim that American drama was not born until the end of World War I (1914-1918).Bytheendofthe19th century American drama was moving steadily toward realism, illuminating the rough or seamy side of life and creating more believable characters. Realism remained the dominant trend
6、 of the 20th century in both comedies and tragedies. American drama achieved international recognition with the psychological realism of plays by Eugene ONeill and their searing investigation of characters inner lives. As the century advanced, the number of topics considered suitable for drama broad
7、ened to encompass race, gender, sexuality, and death.IIBEGINNINGS: 1600S AND 1700SBecausesettlementwas sparse and living conditions were arduous in the American colonies, little theatrical activity took place before the mid-18th century. The first-known English-language play from the colonies, Ye Ba
8、re and Ye Cubb (1665), is lost. The plays existence is known as a result of the controversy it aroused in the Virginia Colony, where a lawsuit was filed to prevent the play from opening. Several colonies had passed antitheater laws based on a Puritan belief that the seventh of the Ten Commandments p
9、rohibited dancing and stage plays.TheoldestsurvivingAmerican play is Androborus by Robert Hunter (1714). Hunter, the New York Colonys governor, published the cartoonish play as an attack on his political enemies, despite New Yorks antitheater law. Intended for a reading public rather than a viewing
10、audience, it established a tradition of political satire that became common fare in American drama of the 1700s.BeforemoreAmericanplays had appeared, a company of British professional actors established a touring circuit in the 1750s with an all-British repertory. By the early 1760s this group was k
11、nown as The American Company and American writers occasionally submitted plays to the actors, though few were produced. But in 1767 The American Company staged The Prince of Parthia, a tragedy by Thomas Godfrey, in Philadelphia. This is usually considered the first professional production of a play
12、written by an American. The play itself is indistinguishable from imitations of the works of English dramatist William Shakespeare that abounded in Britain in the late 1700s and early 1800s.DuringtheAmericanRevolution (1775-1783), most professional actors moved to Jamaica. Satirical plays were writt
13、en as propaganda during the war, either supporting British control of the colonies or attacking it. British soldiers presented some of the pro-British plays. Few other plays were performed during the war years, although they were widely read and recited. The Battle of Brooklyn (1776), which was pro-
14、British and written anonymously, presented rebel generals, including George Washington, as drunks, lechers, and cowards. The Blockade (1775), written by British General John Burgoyne, was performed in British-occupied Boston. The plays ridicule of American soldiers was subsequently burlesqued in The
15、 Blockheads; or the Affrighted Officers (1776), written by an anonymous playwright identified only as a patriot. The Blockheads depicts British soldiers as so terrified of the Americans that they soil themselves rather than go outside to use the latrine. Mercy Otis Warren, who created several biting
16、 satires of the British, may have written The Blockheads as well. She remained the strongest American dramatic voice of the Revolution and championed the rebel cause in The Group (1775), a play that describes Britain, called Blunderland, as a mother who eats her own children. The Patriots (1775?), a
17、 play by Robert Munford, was unusual in its appeal for a neutral stance and its attacks on both sides for their intolerance.Bythemid-1780sprofessional actors were touring in America again. In 1787, when the Constitution of the United States was being written, Royall Tyler wrote The Contrast, the fin
18、est American play of the 18th century. This five-act comedy owes much to The School for Scandal (1777) by British playwright Richard Sheridan. Like Sheridans play, The Contrast is a comedy of manners that satirizes the customs of the upper classes. It compares British and American fashions and value
19、s and ultimately sides with what it sees as American candor and patriotism over British duplicity and artificiality. A masterful element of the play is the Yankee character Jonathan, whose honest innocence stands in stark contrast to the rumor-mongering and gossiping of the plays British characters
20、and the American characters who emulate them.The1700salsosawthe first American play written by a woman reach the professional stage. The melodramatic comedy Slaves in Algiers (1794) by Susanna Rowson reflects troubles at that time with pirates along North Africas Barbary Coast who interfered with sh
21、ipping and ran a white slave trade that involved selling girls and women into prostitution. Although the villain was treated comically, the conflict and resolution in this play indicated a move toward melodrama, a form of drama that became extremely popular in the 19th century.IIINATIONHOOD: THE 180
22、0SAmericanplays,while still a minority, began to appear in the theater repertory in the 19th century. Although American plays were still styled after British models, their subject matter came to be based on specifically American incidents or themes. In the United States as in Britain, many plays ref
23、lected the influence of romanticism, a European literary and artistic movement. Melodrama, with its outpourings of emotion, was the most prevalent dramatic form in the 19th century. Gothic melodramas, which emphasized horror, mystery, and the supernatural, and melodramas with tragic endings appeared
24、 regularly in American theaters from the 1790s onin many cases adapted or translated from German, French, and British plays.AAmerican ThemesThefirstprolificwriter of melodramas was William Dunlap, who also translated several German plays for production in the United States. Dunlap adapted Revolution
25、ary War history in Andr (1798), a fictionalized account of the final days of British spy Major John Andr. In 1803 Dunlap reshaped the play as a musical, Glory of Columbia, in which George Washington is elevated to divine status. It was an early example of spectacle dominating dramatic content. Dunla
26、p took spectacle even further in A Trip to Niagara (1828) by making the plays purpose the duplication of scenic wonders that the audience would recognize, such as Niagara Falls.Replicationoflocalcolor, as in A Trip to Niagara, became the norm in 19th-century American melodrama and encompassed detail
27、s of scenery, dialects, and gestures representative of specific locations; contemporary slang; and historical incidents. An early example is She Would Be a Soldier (1819) by Mordecai Noah. The play depicts the military spectacle of the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain and features a
28、 heroine who disguises herself as a soldier to help the American cause and join the man she loves.AlthoughAmericandrama of the 19th century usually followed European models, its subject matter often came from specifically American situations. Superstition (1824), a romantic tragedy by James Nelson B
29、arker, for example, was set in New England of 1675. It discussed conflicts between Native Americans and white settlers, British interference in local affairs, Puritan xenophobia (fear and dislike of foreigners), and the idea of witchcraft. Superstition, in which the hero is tried and executed for wi
30、tchcraft, was the first of many American plays to explore themes of isolationism, bigotry, and intolerance.BarkersTheIndianPrincess (1808) was the first professionally produced play to explore Native American characters and themes. It told the story of Pocahontas, a Native American who married an En
31、glish colonist. A vogue for so-called Indian plays began in the 1820s and continued through the 1840s. While the Pocahontas story was popular in these plays, the most famous such drama was Metamora, or The Last of the Wampanoags (1829) by John Augustus Stone. It was written as a vehicle for American
32、 actor Edwin Forrest, who began in 1828 to offer annual awards for new plays on American themes and gave Metamora first prize. This melodrama was typical of most Indian plays in its setting in an earlier period of frontier history (the 1670s) and its characterization of the Native American hero. Metamora was viewed as natural but uncivilizedthat is, living in harmony with nature but unfamiliar with what European settlers saw as civilized ways. The play put forth sentiments in harmony with white values and ended with Metamoras inevitable death as the rep
