Citation

Kelly KE. Modmod 2004; 11(3): 539-560.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Johns Hopkins University Press,)

DOI

10.1353/mod.2004.0058

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

What appeared to some critics as gloomy, fin-de-siècle decadence preaching "race suicide" grew out of a vibrant set of flexible associations, including erotic love, fierce competition for rights to Ibsen's plays, loyal same-sex and other-sex friendships, maternal solicitude, and professional sponsorship. The modern mother, positioned between the forces of heredity, the subconscious, and a hostile industrial workplace, provided Robins and Bell with a set of references to their private lives and public postures on issues related to women's roles in a changing world that resonated with their Independent Theatre audiences and readers. Alan's Wife occupied a brief moment in the arrival of the London-based new drama, but its delivery offers striking evidence that theatre and paratheatre functioned as vehicles for modernist sociability.

Language: en