New Issue of Comparative Drama

The summer 2011 issue of Comparative Drama, volume 45.2, was published online at Project MUSE in August. Hard copies of this issue will begin mailing by mid-September.

This issue includes the following contributions:

Essays
How to Do Witchcraft Tragedy with Speech Acts
Eric Byville

A “Birthright into a New World”: Representing the Town on Brome’s Stage
Denys Van Renen

Remaking the Chorus: Charles Mee Jr.’s Orestes 2.0
Peter Campbell

Fear Mongering, Media Intimidation, and Political Machinations: Tracing the Agendas Behind the All God’s Chillun Got Wings Controversy
Jeffrey Ullom

Performative Reading and Receiving a Performance of the Jour du Jugement in MS Besançon 579
Karlyn Griffith

Reviews
The Ethos of Drama; Rhetorical Theory and Dramatic Worth
by Robert L. King
reviewed by Martin J. Plax

Philosophers and Thespians: Thinking Performance
by Freddie Rokem
reviewed by Lydia Goehr

Shakespeare, Sex, and Love
by Stanley Wells
reviewed by Elizabeth Klett

Shakespeare and Biography
by David Bevington
reviewed by R. A. Foakes

Don Pedro Calderón
by Don W. Cruikshank
reviewed by Hilaire Kallendorf

Staging Spectatorship in the Plays of Philip Massinger
by Joanne Rochester
reviewed by Julie Sanders

Shakespeare’s Opposites: The Admiral’s Company 1594-1625
by Andrew Gurr
reviewed by Melissa D. Aaron

Shakespeare, Politics, and Italy: Intertexuality on the Jacobean Stage
by Michael J. Redmond
reviewed by Jason Lawrence

Euripides: Suppliant Women
by Ian C. Storey
reviewed by Eric Dugdale

Adam Pasen and Joe Sanders earn recognition at American College Theater Festival.

Adam's play "Spats," which was a regional winner at ACTF last January, was a co-winner along with Joe Sanders' play "Fly-Over State" at the Actors' Theatre of Grand Rapids "Living on the Edge VIII: Secrets and Lies" festival of new 10-minute works. It was also in the top 40 for the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival in New York under a pseudonym, and performed at the Lion Theatre on 42nd Street. Here is the website: http://oob.samuelfrench.com/index.php/the-final-forty/spats-by-adrian-singleton/

Adam's dissertation play Tea with Edie and Fitz, which was produced in York Arena in July, has been awarded an Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation grant of $1000. The Foundation awards grants to projects that present LGBT figures in an actual historical context, and awarded the grant based on Tea's exploration of the sexual and gender dynamics between Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald as well as Henry James' struggle with his own latent desires.

Fall 2011

New Issues Poetry & Prose FALL 2011  Fall releases from New Issues by Susanna Childress, Lizzie Hutton, and Rachel Eliza Griffiths are now available for pre-order. About Us New Issues was established in 1996 by poet Herbert S. Scott.    Winner of the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Andrew Allport has won the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript the body | of space | in the shape of the human. David Wojahn, author of World Tree, judged. Andrew wins a $2,000 award and publication of his manuscript in the spring of 2012 Dear Friends, Thank you so much for making our anniversary a success! We had a wonderful time, and enjoyed a sampling of Susanna Childress' and Lizzie Hutton's new works, which will be available very soon. Here's a preview of our third fall release, Rachel Eliza Griffiths' Mule & Pear: Mule & Pear, New Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths Sincerely, Kimberly Kolbe New Issues Poetry & Prose Here's a poet whose intelligence and imagination value truth above any of its enemies: comfort, decoration, lovely music, the blurring of the line between the personal and the human. The poems feel emotionally and intellectually spontaneous, as if we were present at their coming-into-being, a genuine writer-reader intimacy that's hard to achieve at any stage, let alone in a first book. The poems about childhood and adolescence are among the most powerful I've ever read. Tough, sexy, probing, tender, devoid of sentimentality, fiercely intelligent, and always a step ahead of the reader, She'd Waited Millennia is an important debut. --Chase Twichell Susanna Childress writes at the cutting edge of the long tradition of love poetry. Her poems often involve tense negotiations between a sharp cultural intelligence and a body that craves its fulfillment. She writes with grace about love and lust, and she unfailingly delivers rhythmic and linguistic pleasures to her lucky readers as they follow the course of these inquisitive, unpredictable poems. --Billy Collins Smart, nuanced, lush in their beauty, yetnever unaware of beauty's price, the poems in Mule & Pear meditate on what to do with the ghosts of history by which, as if inevitably, we find ourselves now shaped, now cornered, and now inhabited-each of us, then, an unwitting vessel made to carry the past forward. Griffiths is a master at capturing persona, and uses that gift, especially, to consider the notion of heritage-how much is inherited, how much is imposed? How much of what we believe is what we're told is true? The ambition of these poems dazzles, as does indeed their  achievement.--Carl Phillips Our titles are available online through Amazon.com and spdbooks.org.

New Issues Event Sunday, August 28

New Issues Poetry & Prose SUMMER 2011

In This Issue About Us 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Book of the Year Award About Us New Issues was established in 1996 by poet Herbert S. Scott.    Winner of the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Andrew Allport has won the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript the body | of space | in the shape of the human. David Wojahn, author of World Tree, judged. Andrew wins a $2,000 award and publication of his manuscript in the spring of 2012

Dear Friends, Can you believe it's been 15 years? By the end of this year New Issues will have published 135 books, and we couldn't have done it without you. Come celebrate this anniversary, and help us show appreciation for all of the hard work and dedication put forth by our departing Managing Editor, Marianne Swierenga. The event will take place at Bell's Brewery, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave. on Sunday, August 28 from 2:30 pm-5:00pm. We'll feature readings by novelists Jaimy Gordon & Bonnie Jo Campbell, and poets Susanna Childress & Lizzie Hutton. A $5.00 donation will be requested; as a non-profit we greatly appreciate your generosity! Sincerely, Kimberly Kolbe New Issues Poetry & Prose Fall releases from New Issues by Susanna Childress andLizzie Hutton will be available for pre-order. Susanna Childress writes at the cutting edge of the long tradition of love poetry. Her poems often involve tense negotiations between a sharp cultural intelligence and a body that craves its fulfillment. She writes with grace about love and lust, and she unfailingly delivers rhythmic and linguistic pleasures to her lucky readers as they follow the course of these inquisitive, unpredictable poems. --Billy Collins Here's a poet whose intelligence and imagination value truth above any of its enemies: comfort, decoration, lovely music, the blurring of the line between the personal and the human. The poems feel emotionally and intellectually spontaneous, as if we were present at their coming-into-being, a genuine writer-reader intimacy that's hard to achieve at any stage, let alone in a first book. The poems about childhood and adolescence are among the most powerful I've ever read. Tough, sexy, probing, tender, devoid of sentimentality, fiercely intelligent, and always a step ahead of the reader, She'd Waited Millennia is an important debut. --Chase Twichell Translation by Jaimy Gordon It's not just a dog's life-it's a pig-cow-rat's life. In this deftly executed allegorical novel, Beig (Lost Weddings) gives an episodic, animal-centered account of the life of a young woman in rural Germany between the two world wars. Brief chapters-"Horse," "Cat," "Pig," etc.-recount the protagonist's less-than-idyllic encounters with the natural world. At birth, Hermine resembles a mutant horse; at school, she finds herself unable to write the assigned essay "Hurray, We're Slaughtering!" As a young teacher, she inadvertently causes the injury of a pupil during a spirited game based on a bear hunt, and she maims a badger with her motorbike. Disowned by her family for killing their pet goose, she is even scolded by her husband: "No one can have an animal with you around." Granted, "some days Hermine liked well enough," but most days she loses her battle with the bestiary. . . .This earthy, unsentimental novel is the perfect holiday gift for nihilists with a sense of humor. --Publisher's Weekly It would be too bad if, because of Campbell's realistic style and ferocious attention to her setting, "Once Upon a River" were discounted as merely a fine example of American regionalism. It is, rather, an excellent American parable about the consequences of our favorite ideal, freedom. --Jane Smiley, The New York Times  Our titles are available online through Amazon.com and spdbooks.org.

Desire—Grad Conference@CUNY (Nov. 2011)

CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Avenue, New York, New York)
November 10-11, 2011

Desire: From Eros to Eroticism

The students of the Department of Comparative Literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center present an interdisciplinary graduate student conference on November 10-11, 2011.

The concept of desire has been the subject of much examination throughout centuries of literature. From the ancient Greek idea of eros to psychological analysis of the subject through contemporary negotiations of love and desire, the interpretation of desire has evolved, but it has always held a central role in literature and discourse. Desire serves as the motivation for action, and yet the most satisfying desire is often the one that remains unfulfilled. This conference will explore desire as it impels us forward in our pursuit of an end that may ultimately be unattainable.

We invite papers from all disciplines focusing on works from any period that explore desire as it is portrayed in literature, philosophy, theory, art, film, or society. Some of the questions this conference seeks to answer include, but are not limited to:

• How does desire serve as a motivating force?
• Must desire be fulfilled or does it serve another purpose?
• In what ways are the repercussions of desire demonstrated?
• How has the definition of desire evolved between different cultures or time periods?
• In what way does desire figure into political landscapes, contemporary or otherwise?
• What is the relationship between desire and cultural production and entertainment in the age of the Internet and other technologies?
• How does an author’s desire factor into the creation of a text?
• How does a character’s lack of desire affect the text?
• How does comprehension of desire help us to explore the human psyche?
• How is desiring the “undesirable” presented and addressed?
• How does desire relate to discussions of gender, sexuality, race, and other intersections of sexual politics?
• How does desire relate to other concepts such as love, seduction, intoxication, and pleasure?

Please submit a 300 word abstract for a 15-20 minute paper by September 15, 2011 to desireconference2011@gmail.com. Proposals should include the title of the paper, presenter’s name, institutional and departmental affiliation, and any technology requests. We also welcome panel proposals of three to four papers.

This conference is co-sponsored by the Writers’ Institute at the City University of New York Graduate Center, an un-MFA program devoted to bringing together the country’s most talented writers and today’s most celebrated editors, and by the Doctoral Students’ Council, the sole policymaking body representing students in doctoral and master’s programs at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.