The New History Play

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Mark Berninger (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz)

Ed. by Aleks Sierz, Independent Scholar - Europe
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.1930

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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The history play is often regarded as a genre of the past. It is most frequently associated either with the short phase of the great Elizabethan histories of Marlowe and Shakespeare in the 1590s or with the historicism of the 19th century. Early models are Marlowe's

Edward II

(ca. 1592/93) and Shakespeare's cycle of plays from

Henry VI

, Part 1 (ca. 1590) to

Henry V

(1599). This perspective, however, obscures the fact that history has always been an important topic of theatre plays and continues to be one of the main themes of contemporary drama.

The shape and function of a history play clearly depends on the understanding of history it is based on, and the significance of history for the society for which it is written. It has thus been rightly pointed out that the history play always

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1916 words

Citation: Berninger, Mark. "The New History Play". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 March 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1715, accessed 05 May 2024.]

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