Evolutionary theory made its stage debut as early as the 1840s, reflecting a scientific advancement that was fast changing the world. Tracing this development in dozens of mainstream European and ...American plays, as well as in circus, vaudeville, pantomime, and 'missing link' performances, this study reveals the deep, transformative entanglement among science, art and culture in modern times.
Stages of uncertainty Shepherd-Barr, Kirsten E
Nature,
09/2008, Letnik:
455, Številka:
7211
Journal Article, Book Review
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Frayn's theatre work spans everything from comedy and farce, opera and film, to serious drama and a substantial body of translations of Anton Chekhov's plays. For Copenhagen, he retraces the ...tremendous research he did into the physics and the physicists, from concepts of uncertainty and complementarity in quantum mechanics, to calculations of the critical mass of fissile material needed to make an atomic bomb, and the extent and nature of the German atomic weapons programme.
This article explores how plays in the 1890s engaged with an aspect of evolutionary theory that had become particularly vexed-namely, the idea of gender essentialism: whether motherhood was the true ...calling for women; whether the bond with the infant was inevitable and instinctive; whether, as Shaw's teleological, progressive vision would have it, the woman's evolutionary role was to be the 'life force', selecting the superior mate for the continued improvement of the species. Considering this question can deepen our understanding of the interaction between science and literature in this period, and also usefully complicate the narrative often told about the figure of the New Woman in drama. Two plays of this period address particularly well the question of what is 'natural' maternal behaviour: James A. Herne's
Margaret Fleming
(first staged in 1890) and Elizabeth Robins and Florence Bell's
Alan's Wife
(first staged and published in 1893).
PDF
