Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Doris Mader (Karl-Franzens-Universit)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1997

Places

United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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Theatre-goers and critics responded enthusiastically in September 1997 when the Cottesloe Theatre, part of the Royal National Theatre in London, staged Stoppard’s latest play,

The Invention of Love

directed by Richard Eyre. It transferred to the West End in 1998, and was first produced in the United States in San Francisco in 2000. In this two-act play

Stoppard once again explores the dimension of time in the form of (literary) history, this time choosing a historical character, the late-Victorian poet and famous classicist Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936). In the play, which Hans Ulrich Seeber described as a unique “dramatised (love) elegy” (363), cultural memory and individual reminiscences are merged as the protagonist revisits crucial episodes from his own life and work in the…

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3477 words

Citation: Mader, Doris. "The Invention of Love". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=495, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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