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y separately published work icon Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century multi chapter work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'John McCallum's new history explores the relationship between 20th century Australian drama and a developing concept of nation. The book focuses on the creative tension sparked by dueling impulses between nationalism and cosmopolitanism; and between artistic seriousness and larrikin populism. It explores issues such as the domineering influence of European high culture, the ongoing popularity of representational realism, the influence of popular theatrical forms, the ambivalence (between affection and aggression) of much Australian humour and satire, and the interaction between the personal and the political in drama.

'The strength of Belonging is its comprehensiveness. Anyone studying an Australian play will find it here in the context of the other works by its author or the time and place in which it was written. As well as a rundown of the major writers and their works, the book also investigates a number of lesser known plays and writers.

This authoritative study of Australian drama gives an account of the relationship between our theatre and our sense of self while taking into account a broad range of influences that helped to shape both.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For Ann McCallum, my mother, and in memory of Doug McCallum, my father.

Contents

* Contents derived from the Strawberry Hills, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,:Currency Press , 2009 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Turn of the Century, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 1-22)
Bush and City, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 23-49)
Settling the Land, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 51-76)
Into the City, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 77-90)
Patrick White, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 91-112)
Playwrights in the 60s, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 113-137)
The New Wave, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 139-166)
David Williamson, John McCallum , single work criticism
'Of all the bright young playwrights of the early New Wave the most successful, and later the most controversial, has been David Williamson.'
 (p. 167-186)
Playwrights in the 70s, John McCallum , single work criticism
'Many of the playwrights of the New Wave rose, shone briefly, and then sank without a trace, in a theatre culture that briefly supported them and then moved on. Alexander Buzo and Alma De Groen, and to a lesser extent Jim McNeil, were major dramatists whose plays have never become a regular part of the repertoir in the way that the plays of White and Williamson have. This chapter also covers the remarkable work of Reg Livermore, a performer, who wrote his own material in the 1970s for a series of highly original shows.'
 (p. 187-208)
The New Internationalism, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 209-238)
Playwrights in the 80s, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 239)
Identity and Community, John McCallum , single work criticism
'After the New Wave few people other than politicians and advertisers ever spoke again with confidence about the Australian National Character. In the theatre, as elsewhere in the 1980s, the idea that such a complex notion as 'Australianness' could ever be summed up in a simple drama of representation came to be seen as absurd. Difference was celebrated. The politics of personal and social identity became key determinants in the way in which new plays were produced and read by their audiences.'
 (p. 265-280)
Imigrants and Exiles, John McCallum , single work criticism (p. 281-300)
Aboriginal Theatre, John McCallum , single work criticism
Kevin Gilbert's The Cherry Pickers, written in 1968, before the ocker New Wave started, anticipated many of the issues that were to be raised in the debates over identity poitics in the 1980s. Originally workshopped at the Mews Theatre, Sydney, in 1971, with an all Aboriginal cast as Gilbert insisted, the play was the forerunner of a great body of work by Indigenous playwrights.
 (p. 301-325)
Playwrights in the 90s, John McCallum , single work criticism
''Australian Drama' as a cohesive idea emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, was institutionalised by advocates, notably Leslie Rees, in the middle years, and reinvented during the New Wave. It was challenged during the rise of identity and community-based drama in the 1980s, and by the end of the century it had all but died. The playwrights who rose to prominence in the 1990s include some of the best of the century.'
 (p. 327-345)
The End of the Twentieth Century, John McCallum , single work criticism
The 1990s was a bad decade for the poor, the inarticulate and the outcast. Katherine Thomson and Debra Oswald, and, in different ways, Michael Gurr, Andrew Bovell and Daniel Keene, all addressed this.
 (p. 347-371)
VIEW ENTIRE CONTENTS ( works)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Need a Stage Coach? Why Some Plays Work, and Others Don’t Julian Meyrick , 2015 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 9 April 2015; 'We all know whether a given play, film or TV drama “works” or not, but it’s often difficult to pinpoint why. This is the first of four articles in which I will try and cast playwriting in a broader light than is usually the case.' (Author's introduction)
Untitled May-Brit Akerholt , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 56 2010; (p. 236-240)
— Review of Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , 2009 multi chapter work criticism
Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century by John McCallum Jonathan Bollen , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , no. 9 2009;
— Review of Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , 2009 multi chapter work criticism
Australians on Stage, the Way We Are Frank McKone , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 4 July 2009; (p. 15)
— Review of Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , 2009 multi chapter work criticism
Non Fiction Steven Carroll , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 27 June 2009; (p. 26)
— Review of The Outsider : A Portrait of Ursula Hoff Colin Holden , 2009 single work biography ; Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , 2009 multi chapter work criticism
Non Fiction Steven Carroll , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 27 June 2009; (p. 26)
— Review of The Outsider : A Portrait of Ursula Hoff Colin Holden , 2009 single work biography ; Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , 2009 multi chapter work criticism
Australians on Stage, the Way We Are Frank McKone , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 4 July 2009; (p. 15)
— Review of Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , 2009 multi chapter work criticism
Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century by John McCallum Jonathan Bollen , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , no. 9 2009;
— Review of Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , 2009 multi chapter work criticism
Untitled May-Brit Akerholt , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 56 2010; (p. 236-240)
— Review of Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , 2009 multi chapter work criticism
Need a Stage Coach? Why Some Plays Work, and Others Don’t Julian Meyrick , 2015 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 9 April 2015; 'We all know whether a given play, film or TV drama “works” or not, but it’s often difficult to pinpoint why. This is the first of four articles in which I will try and cast playwriting in a broader light than is usually the case.' (Author's introduction)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (5)
Last amended 18 Feb 2014 13:49:36
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  • 1900-1999
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