Shaw and Politics, Vol. 11 of Shaw: The Annual of Shaw Studies ed. by T.F. Evans (review)

Book Reviews cally contextual reading she begins in Part Two. The book does not pretend to study theater - performance history - as opposed to drama - the texts themselves - but the brief discussion of England's history of theatrical androgyny places Shaw among the thinkers of his day. Psychology and sexology set out to redefine Victorian notions of gender: the "invert," the feminine man and the masculine woman became more than curiosities - they were types. Novels of the period dealing with such types abound, but they were rarer on stage. A book tackling the staging and reception of Shaw's plays, both when they were first performed and today would be welcome. Shaw's Daughters, however. has the advantage of discussing plays such as The Adventures oftile Black Girl in Her Searchfor God which are often omitted in critical studies. While the lack of performance analysis here is a shame, the attention to neglected texts is laudable. Gainor argues that Shaw's use of androgyny, in characters like Joan, the Lady in The Mml of Destiny, and Annajanska, merely reinforces his statement in the essay "Woman - Man in Petticoats," that "a woman is a person exactly like myself' (Gainor . 83). He is interested in the masculinization of women, but not in the feminization of men, and thus his notions of equality are one~sided. The use of Pygmalion to end this book makes good sense, despite a bizarre and uncritical discussion of lesbianism. Sexuality in all of Shaw's plays is aggressively het~ erosexual and it strikes me as odd that he can be credited with introducing lesbianism into such a masculine world. In Pygmalion, however, he devotes an entire play to his idea that "Woman, as we know her, is a stage invention." The great irony of Shaw's career is that he only partly recognized the truth of this statement. If woman is to be any more than a slage invention, she must be represented on stage as something other than a man's fantasy. As Gainor shows. Shaw remains a puzzle today because he saw some things so clearly, yet was unable to invent anything really new. CATHERINE WILEY, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT DENVER T.E EVANS, ed. Shaw alld Polirics, Vol. II of Shaw: The Annual ofShaw Studies. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991. Pp. 314. $35.00. Through fifteen essays (two being symposia), six: reviews, and some 270 titles, not a lukewarm word thins Shaw fl. Shaw would have welcomed thus far escaping Laodic~ can indifference, terrifyingly indicted by S1. John the Divine. TIle collection constitutes &. dialectic ultimately prizing, despite emergent reserva~ lions, Shaw's political nature. Two essays locate a guiding dynamic thereof. T.F. Evans (cd.) finds Shaw combines the "political" (essentially economics, the key to human morality) and the "artistic" (I), the latter impelling undoctrinaire peering beyond partisanship. James Woodfield sees Shaw's socialism (as root human nature of being social, but justly so) and dramaturgy take audiences from the familiar to the astonishing in their destiny (47-64). Book Reviews Five essays see Shaw as vanguard political thinker. Bernard Crick finds him the "most ... prolific," because forcing the test of "an equal society": '''jntennarriageability '" (22, 30-3 1). Grasping historical logic, Shaw, C.E. Hill discerned, saw just government possible in reconciliation of proven municipal government meeting social needs and federal government applying perspective, an educated cadre guiding both (13 1-47). Planctarily adaptive, Shaw saw, as Patricia Pugh perceived, in malcontents' bugaboo - British imperialism - practical extension of responsibility, durable when ethical (97-118). In Michel W. Pharand'scomparison of Shaw and Romain Rolland as morally conquering pacifists. Shaw with Rolland can soar au dess/ls de la me/ee, but also, knowingly earlhb