The Dramatist's Experience, with Other Essays in Literary Theory
Author | : Clifford Leech |
Publisher | : London : Chatto & Windus |
Total Pages | : 0 |
Release | : 1970 |
ISBN-10 | : 0701115416 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780701115418 |
Rating | : 4/5 (16 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: The book is about theory, not criticism itself. Such judgments as are made are incidental and doubtless often cursory. The dominant view appears in outline in the first section, '"The Servants will do that for us"', where a stand is taken against the idea that the poet or maker as such is concerned with communication. Most of the remaining essays draw attention to special phenomena either recurrent in literature or associated with a particular place and time, but all of them may perhaps be useful in exploring certain basic features of writing. The last two essays touch, in general terms, on the special conditions of dramatic composition. Throughout there is emphasis on drama and the theatre's demands: it may therefore be appropriate that one of these final essays has been given prominence on the title page.