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" A war on two fronts : "
Homden, Carol.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1094377
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| Doc. No
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TLets329324
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| Main Entry
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Homden, Carol.
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| Title & Author
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A war on two fronts :\ Homden, Carol.
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| College
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University of East Anglia
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| Date
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1989
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| student score
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1989
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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This thesis, which encompasses a comprehensive survey of David Hare'spublished plays from the period 1973-86, examines his work as a productof a war on two fronts - with conventional/established British history andwithin himself about the nature of socialist ideals. The result is a challengeto the tendency to place him within a European tradition of documentary orEpic Theatre initiated by Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht.Nevertheless, to resolve his own conflicts, Hare commonly uses distancingtechniques. He sets his plays in the past, he mediates his (necessarily male)perspective through women protagonists and the action is frequentlylocated at a geographical distance - either in the English provinces orbeyond England altogether. His search is to accommodate the modern andto achieve a valid perspective from which to make a moral judgement withinthe clamour of conflicting propagandas. His use of film and television -Hare writes, edits and directs his own work - reflects this search for a singleperspective.What might seem a political anger stands revealed as a form of revengeagainst a supposed class alienation and generational disinheritance. Thewar on two fronts is not - as is commonly supposed- the world war and theclass war, but the nature of history and of the self. In this sense Hare's workis classical, based on the dualism of good and evil, life and death. This isevident from as early as 1975, when an extended exploration of the natureof art commences. After a period of self-conscious argument, historybecomes a matter of personal memory and of catharsis rather than ofpolitical solution, and art itself the only salvation.
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| Subject
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Literature
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| Added Entry
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University of East Anglia
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