作为一部美国戏剧研究的经典著作，本书结合20世纪后半叶美国精神文化领域的发展变化，对半个多世纪以来的美国戏剧发展进行了广泛深入的研究，对尤金·奥尼尔、田纳西·威廉斯、阿瑟·米勒等主要戏剧作家及其作品作了详细深刻的分析，对非主流戏剧和新近涌现的戏剧新星给予了独到精辟的评述。

In this new edition of the widely acclaimed Modern American Drama Christopher Bigsby completes his survey of post-war and contemporary theatre and brings the reader up to 2000.While retaining the key elements of the first edition, including surveys of those major figures who have shaped post-war American drama, such as Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, David Mamet and Sam Shepard, Bigsby also explores the most recent works and performances: these include plays by established dramatists such as Miller's The Ride down Mount Morgan and Albee's Three Tall Women, as well as works by relatively newer playwrights Paula Vogel, Tony Kushner and Terrence McNally among others. Bigsby also provides a new chapter, 'Beyond Broadway', and offers an analysis of how theatre has formed and influenced the millennial culture of America.

CHRISTOPHER BIGSBY is Professor of American Studies at the University of East Anglia and has published more than twenty-five books covering American theatre, popular culture and British drama, including A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama and Contemporary American Playwrights. He is co-editor, with Don Wilmeth, of The Cambridge History of American Theatre. He is also an awardwinning novelist and regular radio and television broadcaster.

Preface to First Edition

Preface to Second Edition

The absent voice: American drama and the critic

Eugene O'Neill's Endgame

Tennessee Williams: the theatricalising self

Arthur Miller: the moral imperative

Edward Albee: journey to apocalypse

A Broadway interlude

Sam Shepard: imagining America

David Mamet: all true stories

The performing self

Redefining the centre: politics, race, gender

Beyond Broadway

Notes

Index