An Anthology Of Austrian Drama

Opens with a history of the dramatic art of Austria, followed by six representative plays, each of which has an introduction that details its playwright's distinct contribution to an obviously rich and honored tradition.

Schwab's first play was performed in 1990; in 1992 German critics elected him playwright of the year; he died in 1994, leaving behind a total of some fifteen plays. Many of his plays created a furore when produced, but their stage effectiveness made them very successful with theatre audiences. His disrupted language constantly breaks the rules of syntax and ignores the conventions of expression. Yet it still works. Indeed, it is a very effective instrument for revealing the violence which lies not so far below the surface of "respectable" society, which is Schwab's major theme.

This book contains five plays, with a 46 page introduction by editor Udo Borgert and Andrea Bandhauer. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The standard location tool for full-length plays published in collections and anthologies in England and the United States since the beginning of the 20th century, Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections has undergone seven previous editions, the latest in 1988, covering 1900 through 1985. In this new edition, Denise Montgomery has expanded the volume to include collections published in the entire English-speaking world through 2000 and beyond. This new volume lists more than 3,500 new plays and 2,000 new authors, as well as birth and/or death information for hundreds of authors. Representing the largest expansion between editions, this updated volume is a valuable resource for libraries worldwide.

The five plays collected in this volume provide a representative sampling of the Austrian contemporary Volksstuck (folk play). The Volksstuck which has its origins in the eighteenth century has become a favorite genre of modern Austrian playwrights because of its tradition of treating basic social problems critically and realistically. The timeless universal drives of greed, power, and inhumanity remain the dominant themes of the modern Volksstuck as they were of the older version. These Selections -- Veza Canetti, The Ogre; Peter Preses/Ulrich Becher, Our Mr. Bockerer; Peter Turrini, Swine; Felix Mitterer, No Place for Idiots; Gerald Szyszkowitz, Friedemann Puntigam -- are available in English for the first time.

Zauner's A Handful of Earth describes an ambitious domineering woman who gains her financial goals but, like Brecht's Mother Courage, at the cost of her entire family; Elfriede Jelinek's President Evening Breeze, based loosely on a folk play by Johann Nestroy, the acknowledged nineteenth-century master of the form, is a political satire on the career of Kurt Waldheim, the former president of Austria; Peter Rosei's Blameless presents ordinary people as the subject of history; it shows how the media as representatives of commercial culture, popularize and often trivialize serious current issues.

Includes the index to the Journal of the International Arthur Schnitzler Research Association, 1961-67.