Notices

Request for Manuscripts: Future shaw Volumes

SHAW 37.1 (June 2017) will be a theme volume devoted to “Shaw and Classical Literature,” with Gustavo A. Rodríguez Martín (Universidad de Extremadura, Spain) as guest editor. Classical elements in Shaw’s works abound. They include plays set in the classical period (Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles and the Lion), reincarnations of classical myth (Pygmalion), characters defined by their relation to classical scholarship (Adolphus Cusins), even dramatic devices from the classical period borrowed and adapted, such as Senecan sententiae in The Revolutionist’s Handbook and chorus-like characters in Caesar and Cleopatra. Shaw’s nondramatic writings also evince a familiarity with the classical tradition: classical rhetoric underlies some of Shaw’s speeches and essays; Greek and Roman philosophers influenced his thinking; and classical sources helped shape his sense of history.

Few studies survey this area of research: Gilbert Norwood’s 1912 lecture “Euripides and Mr. Bernard Shaw,” Michael von Albrecht’s “Bernard Shaw and the Classics” in Classical and Modern Literature (1987), and Sidney P. Albert’s Shaw, Plato, and Euripides: Classical Currents in “Major Barbara” (2012) are notable exceptions. One could explore Shaw’s images of classical civilization (Egypt and Rome in Caesar or Androcles; echoes of classical antiquity in Back to Methuselah; experimental forms of social order à la Plato’s Republic in Methuselah, Farfetched Fables, and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles); classical languages and spelling reform (the Latin alphabet as an inadequate vehicle for English phonetics); classical history and mythology as sources for characters and settings (Acis, Pygmalion, and Lilith in Methuselah; Balbus or Crassus in The Apple Cart); classical characters in nonclassical settings (and vice versa); dramatic techniques echoing those of classical drama (as mentioned above, chorus-like groups in Androcles, Caesar, or the (unspeaking) Soldiers in Great Catherine; Shaw, Shakespeare, and the classics: legacy, canonicity, and critical reception (to what extent is Shaw’s use of classical material proof that he also looked back on the classics for a measure of his greatness?); rhetoric and didacticism (can Shaw’s oratorical and argumentative techniques be traced to the classics?); democracy, politics, and the Greek model (do Shaw’s political essays borrow from classical Greek political theory?); re-creation and exploitation of classical dicta (how are quotations from famous classical authors modified by Shaw for his own ideological/rhetorical ends? See, e.g., Maxims for Revolutionists).

Submit abstracts (50 to 100 words) or papers (with abstract) to Gustavo A. Rodríguez Martín at garoma@unex.es or gustavoadolform@gmail.com.

SHAW 37.2 (December 2017) will include articles on general topics, as well as book reviews, the Checklist of Shaviana, Notices, and ISS information.

Upcoming theme volumes of SHAW will include “Shaw and Productions” and “Shaw and Music.” For information about these volumes, or to suggest other theme volume titles, contact Christopher Wixson at cmwixson@eiu.edu

SHAW submissions should be sent as email attachments (in Microsoft Word). For matters of style, please refer to recent SHAW volumes.

The 55th Annual Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, Canada

The 2016 Shaw Festival (9 April to 16 October 2016) featured Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession, directed by Eda Holmes, and a one-act stage adaptation by Lisa Codrington of Shaw’s The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, directed by Ravi Jain. Also staged were Alice in Wonderland, adapted by Peter Hinton, Sweeney Todd, adapted by Christopher Bond, Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Annie Baker, A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, Engaged by W. S. Gilbert, The Dance of Death by August Strindberg, and “Master Harold”… and the Boys by Athol Fugard.

For further information, write to Shaw Festival, Post Office Box 774, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, L0S 1J0; or call 1-800-511-SHAW [7429] or 905-468-2153; or go to www.shawfest.com.

Shaw’s Corner

For information about summer performances of Shaw plays at Shaw’s Corner, Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, by Michael Friend Productions, go to www.mfp.org.uk or contact Sue Morgan at Sue.Morgan@nationaltrust.org.uk...