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SHEPHERD-BARR  \nTheatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett  \nCOLUMBIA  \nUNIVERSITY  \nPRESS  \n NEW YORK  \nColumbia University Press Publishers Since 1893  \nNew York Chichester, West Sussex  \n[cup.columbia.edu](cup.columbia.edu)  \nCopyright © 2015 Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr All rights reserved  \nLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data  \nShepherd-Barr, Kirsten, 1966–  \nTheatre and evolution from Ibsen to Beckett / Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr.  \npages cm  \nIncludes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-16470-2 (cloth : alk. paper)  \nISBN 978-0-231-53892-3 (e-book)  \n1. Science and the arts—History. 2. Theater and society—History.  \n3. Evolution (Biology) . 4. Darwin, Charles, 1809–1882—Influence.  \n5. Science—Social aspects—History. I. Title.  \nNX180 .S3S54 2015  \n700.1'05—dc23 2014028479  \nColumbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.  \nThis book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America  \nc 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1  \ncover design: Noah Arlow  \ncover image: Fiona Shaw as Winnie, in Samuel Beckett, Happy Days (directed by Deborah Warner, BAM Harvey Theater, January 2008) .  \n(Photograph by Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images)  \nReferences to Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.  \nNeither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.  \nFor Alastair  \nContents  \nPreface ix  \nAcknowledgments xi  \nIntroduction 1  \n1 “I’m Evolving!”: Birds, Beasts, and Parodies 20  \n2 Confronting the Serious Side 38  \n3 “On the Contrary!”: Ibsen’s Evolutionary Vision 63  \n4 “Ugly . . . but Irresistible”: Maternal Instinct on Stage 92  \n5 Edwardians and Eugenicists 128  \n6 Reproductive Issues 169  \n7 Midcentury American Engagements with Evolution 203  \n8 Beckett’s “Old Muckball” 237 Epilogue: Staging the Anthropocene 273 Notes 289  \nIndex 363  \nPreface  \nThis project developed naturally from my book Science on Stage and from organizing a panel on Darwin and the Theatre for the international Darwin Festival in Cambridge in 2009. The book was originally going to be called Darwin and the Dramatists, a catchy title that paid homage to George Levine’s wonderful book Darwin and the Novelists. But it soon became clear that this title would never reflect the true subject of the book, as theatre’s engagement with evolution ranges far beyond“drama” (a too narrowly literary term) and far beyond “Darwin.” Infact, it is nearly the opposite—a story of how theatre in an astonishingly wide range of forms took up specifically non-Darwinian ideas and transformed them in playwriting and in performance. As I was finishing this book, an eminent novelist and critic whom I had just metremarked, on hearing what I was working on: “Ah well, all artists are Lamarckians at heart!” To paraphrase Tennessee Williams, wouldn’t it be nice if it were true. Instead, as I hope this book shows, theatre’s engagement with evolution tracks an astonishing range of ideas in which all kinds of thinkers contribute, from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Herbert Spencer to Ernst Haeckel and Charles Darwin to Hugo de Vries and","cbCaiqKPYhP4ypFa","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqKPYhP4ypFa","pdf",3177074,397,"English","# Preface\n# Acknowledgments\n# Introduction\n# “I’m Evolving!”: Birds, Beasts, and Parodies\n# Confronting the Serious Side\n# “On the Contrary!”: Ibsen’s Evolutionary Vision\n# “Ugly . . . but Irresistible”: Maternal Instinct on Stage\n# Edwardians and Eugenicists\n# Reproductive Issues\n# Midcentury American Engagements with Evolution\n# Beckett’s “Old Muckball”\n# Epilogue: Staging the Anthropocene\n# Notes\n# Index","[{\"question\":\"What time span and intellectual scope does the book cover?\",\"answer\":\"The chapters move from nineteenth-century theatrical engagements with evolutionary ideas through later twentieth-century contexts, and the epilogue addresses staging the Anthropocene. The discussion includes multiple thinkers associated with evolutionary theory beyond Darwin alone.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the book position theatre’s relationship to “evolution” and “Darwin”?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that theatre’s engagement with evolution extends far beyond traditional “drama” and beyond a purely Darwin-focused story. The work emphasizes how theatrical forms adopt and transform evolutionary concepts through playwriting and performance.\"},{\"question\":\"Which major topics appear in the chapter sequence?\",\"answer\":\"The contents include parodies and evolving creatures, serious confrontations with evolutionary thought, Ibsen’s evolutionary vision, maternal instinct on stage, eugenicist and Edwardian contexts, reproductive issues, and midcentury American engagements, before turning to Beckett and concluding with the Anthropocene.\"}]","Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett | PDF",1789987227,611]