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History of English Literature Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 26: Twentieth Century

(Poetic Drama and Problem Play)

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
26.1 Poetic Drama
26.1.1 Stephen Phillips (1864-1915)
26.1.2 John Masefield (1878-1967)
26.1.3 John Drinkwater (1882-1937)
26.1.4 Yeats and the Irish Movement
26.1.5 Lascelles Abercrombie (1881-1938)
26.1.6 Dr. Gordon Bottomley
26.1.7 T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
26.2 Problem Play
26.2.1 Shakespearean Problem Play
26.3 Summary
26.4 Keywords
26.5 Review Questions
26.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Define poetic drama.
Describe yeats and the irish movement.
Define Dr. Gordon Bottomley and T.S. eliot.
Explain problem play.

Introduction

The problem play (also called "thesis play," "discussion play," and "the comedy of ideas") is a
comparatively recent form of drama. It originated in nineteenth-centuryFrance but was effectively
practised and popularized by the Norwegian playwright Ibsen. It was introduced into England by
Henry Arthur Jones and A. W. Pinero towards the end of the nineteenth century. G. B. Shaw and
Galsworthy took the problem play to its height in the twentieth century. H. Granvi lie-Barker was
the last notable practitioner of this dramatic type. Thus the problem play flourished in England in
the period between the last years of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth.

26.1 Poetic Drama

Like the rest of the literature of the twentieth century, drama is marked by excessive realism-
almost naturalism. In the early years of the century English drama under the influence of Ibsen,
Shaw and Galsworthy was too realistic and too involved in contemporary social problems to be
tolerant of any poetry-least of all, poetic expression. Prose-witty, serious, pathetic, or ironical-was
the accepted medium of drama.

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