عنوان

A war on two fronts :

Number

TLets329324

Title Proper

A war on two fronts :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Homden, Carol.

Title Proper by Another Author

The plays of David Hare 1973-86.

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of East Anglia

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

1989

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of East Anglia

Text preceding or following the note

1989

Text of Note

This thesis, which encompasses a comprehensive survey of David Hare'spublished plays from the period 1973-86, examines his work as a productof a war on two fronts - with conventional/established British history andwithin himself about the nature of socialist ideals. The result is a challengeto the tendency to place him within a European tradition of documentary orEpic Theatre initiated by Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht.Nevertheless, to resolve his own conflicts, Hare commonly uses distancingtechniques. He sets his plays in the past, he mediates his (necessarily male)perspective through women protagonists and the action is frequentlylocated at a geographical distance - either in the English provinces orbeyond England altogether. His search is to accommodate the modern andto achieve a valid perspective from which to make a moral judgement withinthe clamour of conflicting propagandas. His use of film and television -Hare writes, edits and directs his own work - reflects this search for a singleperspective.What might seem a political anger stands revealed as a form of revengeagainst a supposed class alienation and generational disinheritance. Thewar on two fronts is not - as is commonly supposed- the world war and theclass war, but the nature of history and of the self. In this sense Hare's workis classical, based on the dualism of good and evil, life and death. This isevident from as early as 1975, when an extended exploration of the natureof art commences. After a period of self-conscious argument, historybecomes a matter of personal memory and of catharsis rather than ofpolitical solution, and art itself the only salvation.

Literature

Homden, Carol.

University of East Anglia

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y