Thomas Fahy examines the integration of and challenges to popular culture found in the theatrical works of Millay, Cummings, and Dos Passos, which have largely been marginalized in discussions of theatre history and literary studies, despite offering a hybrid theatre that integrates popular with formal, and mainstream with experimental
"An intelligent, extremely well written study, Fahy's text expands our knowledge of the subject. He enables us to understand better the non-realistic (expressionist, maybe even post-modern) theater in America as well as to understand the writers themselves." - Townsend Ludington, author of John Dos Passos: A Twentieth-Century Odyssey and The Fourteenth Chronicle: Letters and Diaries of John Dos Passos"As Fahy points out, these plays and playwrights have been marginalized by readers and scholars alike. Nevertheless, Fahy proves how relevant these works are; all of these artists challenged contemporary perceptions of class, race, and sexuality. Fahy s insights are extremely perceptive, and he is not only influenced by famous critics, such as Bahktin, Cohn, Foucault, Pizer, and Nicoll, but also by major new authorities such as Bay-Cheng, Kasson, Ludington, and Wagner-Martin. A fine contribution to literary scholarship." - Kimball King, Professor Emeritus of English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill