Intertextuality in American Drama

The essays in this collection fill an important conceptual gap in present-day criticism. New essays are presented on such diverse writers as Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, Maurine Dallas Watkins, Sophie Treadwell, and Washington Irving. The essayists offer equally diverse approaches to intertextuality, such as the influence of the poetry of romanticism and Shakespeare, histories and novels, ideological and political discourses on American playwrights, unlikely connections between such persons as Miller and Wilder, the problems of intertexts in translation, the evolution in different historical contexts of the same tale, and the relationships among feminism, the drama of the courtroom, and the drama of the stage. Intertextuality has been an under explored area in studies of dramatic and performance texts. The innovative findings of these scholars testifies to the vitality of research in American drama and performance.