Includes bibliographical references (pages 208-231) and index.
1. Introduction: The Problem of American Drama -- 2. Generic Hegemony: The Exclusion of American Drama -- 3. No Corner in Her Own House: What Is American About American Drama? -- 4. Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? American Drama in the University Curriculum -- 5. Caught in the Close Embrace: Sociology and Realism -- 6. Conclusion: Beyond Hegemony and Canonicity.
0
In American Drama: The Bastard Art, Susan Harris Smith looks at the many often conflicting cultural and academic reasons for the neglect and dismissal of American drama as a legitimate literary form. Covering a wide range of topics - theatrical performance, the rise of nationalist feeling, the creation of academic disciplines, and the development of sociology - Smith's study is a contentious and revisionist historical inquiry into the troubled cultural and canonical status of American drama, both as a literary genre and as a mirror of American society.