American theater in the culture of the Cold War : producing and contesting containment /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:McConachie, Bruce A.
Imprint:Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, ©2003.
Description:1 online resource (xiv, 347 pages) : illustrations
Language:English
Series:Studies in theatre history and culture
Studies in theatre history and culture.
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12643823
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:1587294478
9781587294471
Notes:Print version record.
Other form:Print version: McConachie, Bruce A. American theater in the culture of the Cold War. Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, ©2003 0877458626
Description
Summary:In this groundbreaking study, Bruce McConachie uses the primary metaphor of containment--what happens when we categorize a play, a television show, or anything we view as having an inside, an outside, and a boundary between the two--as the dominant metaphor of cold war theatergoing. Drawing on the cognitive psychology and linguistics of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, he provides unusual access to the ways in which spectators in the cold war years projected themselves into stage figures that gave them pleasure.<br> <br> McConachie reconstructs these cognitive processes by relying on scripts, set designs, reviews, memoirs, and other evidence. After establishing his theoretical framework, he focuses on three archtypal figures of containment significant in Cold War culture, Empty Boys, Family Circles, and Fragmented Heroes. McConachie uses a range of plays, musicals, and modern dances from the dominant culture of the Cold War to discuss these figures, including The Seven Year Itch , Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ; The King and I , A Raisin in the Sun , Night Journey , and The Crucible. In an epilogue, he discusses the legacy of Cold War theater from 1962 to 1992.
Physical Description:1 online resource (xiv, 347 pages) : illustrations
ISBN:1587294478
9781587294471