Part 1, "Materials," surveys editions, anthologies, and a large selection of published works on Miller. Part 2, "Approaches," has fourteen concise, helpful essays by experienced instructors focusing on stage directions and scenery; comparing Willy Loman with salesmen in plays by O'Neill and Mamet; and reading the play from psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, sociological, and feminist perspectives.
Arthur Miller is regarded as one of the most important playwrights of the twentieth century, and his work continues to be widely performed and studied around the world. This updated Companion includes Miller's work since the publication of the first edition in 1997 - the plays Mr Peters' Connections, Resurrection Blues, and Finishing the Picture - and key productions of his plays since his death in 2005. The chapter on Miller and the cinema has been completely revised to include new films, and demonstrates that Miller's work remains an important source for filmmakers. In addition to detailed analyses of plays including Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, Miller's work is also placed within the context of the social and political climate of the time. The volume closes with a bibliographic essay which reviews the key studies of Miller and also contains a detailed chronology of the work of this influential dramatist.
Arthur Miller’s penultimate play, Resurrection Blues, is a darkly comic satirical allegory that poses the question: What would happen if Christ were to appear in the world today? In an unidentified Latin American country, General Felix Barriaux has captured an elusive revolutionary leader. The rebel, known by various names, is rumored to have performed miracles throughout the countryside. The General plans to crucify the mysterious man, and the exclusive television rights to the twenty-four-hour reality-TV event have been sold to an American network for $25 million. An allegory that asserts the interconnectedness of our actions and each person’s culpability in world events, Resurrection Blues is a comedic and tragic satire of precarious morals in our media-saturated age.
"Play Analysis: A Casebook on Modern Western Drama is a combined play-analysis textbook and course companion that contains twelve essays on major dramas from the modern European and American theaters: among them, Ghosts, The Ghost Sonata, The Doctor’s Dilemma, A Man’s a Man, The Homecoming, The Hairy Ape, The Front Page, Of Mice and Men, Our Town, The Glass Menagerie, and Death of a Salesman. Supplementing these essays are a Step-by-Step Approach to Play Analysis, a Glossary of Dramatic Terms, Study Guides, Topics for Writing and Discussion, and bibliographies. Written with college students in mind (and possibly also advanced high school students), these critical essays cover some of the central plays treated in courses on modern Euro-American drama and will provide students with practical models to help them improve their own writing and analytical skills. The author is a “close reader” committed to a detailed yet objective examination of the structure, style, imagery, and language of a play. Moreover, he is concerned chiefly with dramatic analysis that can be of benefit not only to playreaders and theatergoers, but also to directors, designers, and even actors—that is, with analysis of character, action, dialogue, and setting that can be translated into concepts for theatrical production, or that can at least provide the kind of understanding of a play with which a theater practitioner could fruitfully quarrel."
