The book explores how Victorian society shaped the understanding of adolescence, establishing a framework that persisted into the twentieth century. Ferrall and Jackson contend that this Victorian concept contrasts sharply with the post-World War II view of adolescence as a tumultuous phase characterized by "storm and stress." Through their analysis, they highlight the evolution of societal perceptions of youth and the implications for contemporary understandings of this developmental stage.
Brecht, Theatre and Translation’s Political Unconscious
The Many Lives of Galileo is a Marxist study of the development of Bertolt Brecht's great play Galileo on the English stage. Tracing various translations of Brecht's original, and the historical and political moments surrounding these translations, Dougal McNeill examines how, across the distances of culture, history and language, The Life of Galileo has come to figure so prominently in the life of English-language theatre. The translations and productions of Galileo by Charles Laughton, Howard Brenton and David Hare are examined, in a method combining close reading with an attention to broader social contexts, with an eye to uncovering their implications for drama in performance. Brecht valued re-creation, re-invention and re-telling as much as creation itself. In this book the author applies Brecht's aesthetic to translations of his own work, following Laughton, Brenton and Hare as they set themselves the task of rewriting Brecht and, in the process, use him to comment on their own eras.
Exploring the intersection of modernist aesthetics with technology and politics, the author presents fresh perspectives that challenge conventional interpretations. The analysis delves into how these elements influence each other, providing a thought-provoking examination of their interconnectedness in contemporary society. Through this lens, the book invites readers to reconsider the implications of modernism in the context of technological advancement and political discourse.