Bernard Shaw and Totalitarianism Longing for Utopia [Hardcover]

This book reveals the genuity of Shaw's totalitarianism by looking at his material - articles, speeches, letters, etc but is especially concerned with analyzing the utopian desire that runs through so many of Shaw's plays; looking at his political and eugenic utopianism as expressed in his drama and comparing this to his political totalitarianism.Introduction: George Bernard Shaw: Revolutionary Playwright 1. Previsions of the Superman in the Coming Age of Will: The Quintessence of Ibsenism 2. Utopia in Flames: Shaw and Wagner's Ring: The Perfect Wagnerite 3. From Hell to Heaven: Creative Evolution and the Drive towards the Military-Industrial-Religious Complex: Man and Superman , John Bull's Other Island , Major Barbara 4. Shaw's Modern Utopia: Back to Methuselah 5. Shaw's Totalitarian Drama of the Thirties; or, Shaw and the Dictators: Geneva , The Millionairess , The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles 6. George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950, Utopian to the End: Farfetched Fables EPILOGUE

Students of Shaw everywhere will want to read this provocative study, which turns an unflinching eye on aspects of Shavian thought that profoundly unsettle the reflective mind Highly recommended [for] upper-division undergraduates and above. (Choice)

Matthew Yde is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of New Mexico, USA. He specialises in modern and contemporary theatre and drama, particularly in relation to politics, philosophy, and religion. He has published multiple articles in Modern Drama and The Journal of Bernard Shaw Studies as well as a book chapter on Krzysztof Kie?lowski's film The Decalogue. He is currently writing a monograph on contemporary American dramatist Stephen Adly Guirgis.

A major achievement, perhaps even a game changer for Shaw Studies . . . Bernard Shaw and Totalitarianism reads like a novel, replete with tight prose, lS,