Tom Stoppard: European Phantom Pain and the Theatre of Faux Biography
The paper reads Stoppard’s work in the 21st century as further testimony of the gradual politicisation of his work that began in the 1970s under the influence of Czech dissidents, and particularly as a result of his visits to Russia and Prague in 1977. It also provides evidence that Stoppard, since...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Humanities |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/10/2/80 |
| _version_ | 1827690903499702272 |
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| author | Eckart Voigts |
| author_facet | Eckart Voigts |
| author_sort | Eckart Voigts |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The paper reads Stoppard’s work in the 21st century as further testimony of the gradual politicisation of his work that began in the 1970s under the influence of Czech dissidents, and particularly as a result of his visits to Russia and Prague in 1977. It also provides evidence that Stoppard, since the 1990s, had begun to target emotional responses from his audience to redress the intellectual cool that seems to have shaped his earlier, “absurdist” phase. This turn towards emotionalism, the increasingly elegiac obsession with doubles, unrequited lives, and memory are linked to a set of biographical turning points: the death of his mother and the investigation into his Czech-Jewish family roots, which laid bare the foundations of the Stoppardian art. Examining this kind of “phantom pain” in two of his 21st-century plays, <i>Rock’n’Roll</i> (2006) and <i>Leopoldstadt</i> (2019), the essay argues that Stoppard’s work in the 21st century was increasingly coloured by his biography and Jewishness—bringing to the fore an important engagement with European history that helped Stoppard become aware of some blind spots in his attitudes towards Englishness. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:48:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2336f2db79ef4b3da2eb90bf42fe3da2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0787 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:48:31Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-2336f2db79ef4b3da2eb90bf42fe3da22023-11-21T22:21:45ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872021-06-011028010.3390/h10020080Tom Stoppard: European Phantom Pain and the Theatre of Faux BiographyEckart Voigts0English and American Studies, TU Braunschweig, 38106 Braunschweig, GermanyThe paper reads Stoppard’s work in the 21st century as further testimony of the gradual politicisation of his work that began in the 1970s under the influence of Czech dissidents, and particularly as a result of his visits to Russia and Prague in 1977. It also provides evidence that Stoppard, since the 1990s, had begun to target emotional responses from his audience to redress the intellectual cool that seems to have shaped his earlier, “absurdist” phase. This turn towards emotionalism, the increasingly elegiac obsession with doubles, unrequited lives, and memory are linked to a set of biographical turning points: the death of his mother and the investigation into his Czech-Jewish family roots, which laid bare the foundations of the Stoppardian art. Examining this kind of “phantom pain” in two of his 21st-century plays, <i>Rock’n’Roll</i> (2006) and <i>Leopoldstadt</i> (2019), the essay argues that Stoppard’s work in the 21st century was increasingly coloured by his biography and Jewishness—bringing to the fore an important engagement with European history that helped Stoppard become aware of some blind spots in his attitudes towards Englishness.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/10/2/80Tom StoppardbiographyEuropean historyHolocaust/ShoahCzech Republicmemory |
| spellingShingle | Eckart Voigts Tom Stoppard: European Phantom Pain and the Theatre of Faux Biography Humanities Tom Stoppard biography European history Holocaust/Shoah Czech Republic memory |
| title | Tom Stoppard: European Phantom Pain and the Theatre of Faux Biography |
| title_full | Tom Stoppard: European Phantom Pain and the Theatre of Faux Biography |
| title_fullStr | Tom Stoppard: European Phantom Pain and the Theatre of Faux Biography |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tom Stoppard: European Phantom Pain and the Theatre of Faux Biography |
| title_short | Tom Stoppard: European Phantom Pain and the Theatre of Faux Biography |
| title_sort | tom stoppard european phantom pain and the theatre of faux biography |
| topic | Tom Stoppard biography European history Holocaust/Shoah Czech Republic memory |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/10/2/80 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT eckartvoigts tomstoppardeuropeanphantompainandthetheatreoffauxbiography |