Modern Drama: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies (review)

Martin Puchner's four-volume, 1600-page anthology of dramatic criticism is an ambitious project that documents the ideological and theoretical origins of, and practical and critical responses to, modern drama. The collection combines, in his words,

[the] ample and highly opinionated writings of the modern dramatists themselves, the choices made by contemporary directors, the perspectives offered by early theorists and philosophers interested in the emerging canon of modern drama, the various methodological trends and fashions governing scholarship from the 1950s to the present, the changing theater landscape influencing the study of drama, and finally the institutional history of theater studies as a discipline.

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Starting with Richard Wagner's ardent "The Art-Work of the Future," in which the composer pleads for an "all-faculty" kind of art, and ending with Alan Ackerman's dispassionate reflection on the hermeneutic potential of the close-reading of theatre, Puchner covers 120 years of criticism with a wealth of original material, structured chronologically and thematically.

Just about every single essay in the first two volumes is required reading for any serious graduate student of theatre, whether of theory or practice. These introductory volumes contain standard texts, including selections from August Strindberg, Adolphe Appia, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Georg Lukács, but they also provide access to more uncommon sources like Kurt Schwitters's Merz manifesto and T.S. Eliot's thorough reflection on poetic drama. They also offer fresh looks at old themes, such as Toril Moi's fundamental reassessment and reframing of Ibsen's role as a modernist figure. Volume three brings together a divergent collection of recent critical approaches to historical modernist practice, be it through the lens of gender criticism (Judith Stephens, J. Ellen Gainor), gay studies (Laurence Senelick), postcolonial studies (Sandra Richards, David Krasner, Elin Diamond), cultural theory (Shannon Jackson, David Savran), or performance analysis (Christopher Balme, Julie Stone Peters). Critical responses to the practice of acting and design complement the volume nicely.

The fourth volume is rather unique for any collection of theatre theory, as it juxtaposes philosophical approaches and theories of aesthetics with performance theory and criticism. Elinor Fuchs's essay on "theatricalist anti-theatricalism" (111) and Erika Fisher-Lichte's commentary on the avant-garde's antitextuality are certainly among the central essays in this volume, as they focus on the crucial question of the performance's textual dependency. Puchner has included two of his own contributions, which deal with the topic of textuality and antitheatricality. Essays by Francis Ferguson, Herbert Lindenberger, Jacques Derrida, Ackerman, Savran, and Julia Kristeva give further prominence to the focus on antitheatricality.

Since Bernard Dukore's Dramatic Theory and Criticism (1974) and Avant Garde Drama (1969, with Daniel Gerould) have been out of print, sourcing reading material for graduate courses on the subject has become challenging. Gerould's Theatre/Theory/Theatre (2000) filled a void, but Puchner's focus on modernism, as well as the scope of his sources, provides an unrivalled resource for reference, reading, and study. Quite a few of the primary articles from Dukore's two collections reappear here (Wagner, Émile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, Maurice Maeterlinck, Lukács, Stanislaw Witkiewicz) and are thus made again available. Some of these (like Maeterlinck's reflections on modern drama) could have done with an updated or new translation. At the same time, however, the inclusion of often difficult-to-access translated sources is precisely what makes the compilation so valuable. The forty-page extract from Peter Szondi's Theory of the Modern Drama is a case in point. An intelligent reflection on the emergence of epic theatre as a logical response to problems of realism and naturalism (essentialized in the paralysis of mimesis), the source is rarely included in critical anthologies.

Puchner's introductions are lucid and to the point. While avoiding polemics and simplifications, he engages the reader in the critical process of understanding the stakes of theory while at the same time allowing us a hint of his...