“SHAW IN THE
30s: DRAMA AND DICTATORIAL POLITICS”
A SPECIAL SESSION (#23) ON BERNARD SHAW
AT THE 2012 MODERN LANGUAGE
ASSOCIATION CONVENTION
JANUARY 5-8, 2012.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
DEADLINE: MARCH 15, 2011
Sponsored by the International Shaw Society
Presiding: Lawrence Switzky, University of Toronto
SHAW IN THE WASTELAND?
The Modern
Language Association Convention scheduled for Seattle in January of 2012 will
feature another Special Shaw Session. Please send abstracts of no
more than 250 words (with title) and an up-to-date CV by March 15, 2011
to Lawrence Switzky at lawrence.switzky@utoronto.ca. You of course have to be a member of MLA to
deliver a paper, but you do not have to be a member to attend the session, as
follows:
TOPIC: “Shaw in the
30s: Drama and Dictatorial Politics”
In the 1930s, among many other things, Bernard Shaw wrote six
full-length plays, feted Albert Einstein, dallied outrageously with “The
Dictators,” visited the United States for the first (and second) time, and won
an Academy Award. Even by the standards
of a master of paradox, the 1930s was a decade of artistic and political
extremes for Shaw. Much of Shaw’s
subsequent reception has been tinctured by both his humanitarian work and the
putative development of his “darker side” during these years. This panel offers an opportunity to
re-evaluate this complex period in Shaw’s career:
Ø as an artist (through any of the
plays or prose writings from Too True To
Be Good and The Adventures of the
Black Girl in Her Search for God through ‘In Good King Charles’s Golden Days’)
Ø a political propagandist (as, for
instance, a critic of democracy, a sincere or ironic advocate of fascism, a
Zionist and counter-Zionist, a champion of revolutionary socialism)
Ø a celebrity in and theorist of mass
media (through his radio broadcasts and appearances on newsreels)
Ø a world traveler and early
post-colonialist
Ø a votary of the Life Force in the grip
of old age, determined to be “more revolutionary” as he aged.
Papers are welcome on any aspect of Shaw’s investment in the
‘30s and his place among its fulgurous debates, figures, and movements.
Panelists are also encouraged to read Shaw through any of the modernisms that
emerged in the 1930s (e.g. “New Deal Modernism”) or through the formal and
stylistic features that characterize his later work.
THE PROGRAM FOR “SHAW IN THE 30s: DRAMA
AND DICTATORIAL POLITICS” (at http://www.mla.org/program_details?prog_id=S618)
A
special session, # 23, Thursday,
5 January, 12:00
noon–1:15 p.m., 604, WSCC
Presiding:
Lawrence Switzky,
Univ. of Toronto, Mississauga
1.
"Politics, Allegory, and Mortality in On the Rocks," Charles J. Del Dotto, Duke
Univ.
2.
"Exotic Fable or Stalinist Allegory? Taking Another
Look at Shaw's The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles," Matthew Yde,
Ohio State Univ., Columbus
3.
"Shaw's Subjunctive: The Dramaturgy of Extravaganza and the Extremities of
Political Imagination," David
Kornhaber, Univ. of Texas, Austin
For
abstracts, write to lawrence.switzky@utoronto.ca.
You can discover how to
register for the 2012 MLA convention by going to http://www.mla.org/convention.
Shaw at the Independent Labour Party summer
camp, 1930. G.B. Shaw's photographs reproduced with the permission of the Society of Authors. George Bernard Shaw Photographs
at the London School of Economics, at http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/georgebernardshaw/georgebernardshaw-independentlabourparty.html
From the website “DVD Talk,” at http://www.dvdtalk.com/silentdvd/
more_treasures.html. The
still is from a 5 min. 1928 film, Greetings
by George Bernard Shaw, with optional commentary by Donald Crafton: : An early sound film featuring the famous playwright talking
to the audience and making faces. He does a Mussolini impersonation,
a person that he describes as “most genial” and “amiable.” His Irish
accent and speech mannerisms make it pretty clear that this is satire, but
this appears on YouTube and in Glen Beck’s propaganda clips as though it were
to be taken “straight.”
George
Bernard Shaw The dust jacket for this edition
was designed by Alexander Nesbitt. Sidney P. Albert -- George
Bernard Shaw Collection at Brown University. See http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/exhibits/shaw/politics.html
.
What I Really Wrote about the War.
New York: Publishers Brentano’s, [1932].
For the entire collection of book
covers at Brown University under “The Quintessential G.B.S.
: Politics,”
see http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/exhibits/shaw/politics
.