engleski

Representations of Marriage and Relationships in Contemporary Anglo-American Drama

The paper argues that the social changes that the institution of marriage or the ideas of relationships have undergone over the years are shadowed by changes in dramatic representations of marriage and relationships on Anglo-American stages, most notably in terms of dramatis personae, dramatic form or genre, problems and topics addressed in the plays, communication strategies and depictions of interactions among characters etc. Firstly, the paper provides an overview of analysis of the notion of marriage and/or relationship in contemporary sociological and psychological studies (e.g. David Olson's circumplex model of marriage and family as well as his empirical typology distinguishing between five types of marriage, Stephanie Coontz and her view of the history of marriage, Kristin Celello's analysis of marriage as 'work'). The paper provides an analysis of American plays, among others, by Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, 1962, Marriage Play, 1987), Christopher Durang (The Marriage of Bette and Boo, 1976), Paula Vogel (Desdemona. A Play About a Handkerchief, 1999) and David Mamet (Boston Marriage 1999) and British plays by Harold Pinter (Betrayal, 1978), Peter Nichols (Passion Play, 1981), Chris Thorpe et. al (Presumption, 2007) and Enda Walsh (Penelope, 2010), showing to what extent the plays reflect the sociological changes of perception of marriage and relationships, what genres are used to depict them and how the plays were received by the audiences (nominations, awards, reviews).

marriage, relationships, American drama, British drama, contemporary

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