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In the mid-eighteenth century, Vienna, like other European cities, began to manifest the influence of modern French culture; In 1752, a troupe of French players was appointed to the Austrian court to entertain the aristocracy. Four years later, links were forged between the Parisian and Viennese stages via Favart who corresponded with Count Durazzo in Vienna and sent opera scores and suggestions about personnel. In 1765 problems with finance and leadership led to dismissal of Vienna's first French troupe but others performed there for shorter periods between 1765 and 1780. Opera-comique was introduced to Vienna by French players. Occasional performances of opera-comique in German translation took place in Vienna during the 1770s. When, in 1778, the Nationalsingspiel was founded, French opera formed part of the repertoire because of a lack of good German works. A renewed interest in opèra-comique began in about 1790 when fear of revolutionary France and the reigns of Leopold and Franz led to a return of interest in Italian opera at the court theatres, and the virtual disappearance of opêra-comique from its repertoire. Once an aristocratic entertainment, opera-comique now enjoyed popularity at the suburban theatres. Many recent and historically important French operas were performed in Vienna during the next thirty years, putting Italian opera temporarily out of fashion and having an important influence on the emergent German Romantic opera. After 1802 the Theater an der Wien and the court theatres engaged in serious competition. Over 120 French operas were performed in Vienna between 1790 and 1819. Printed French scores and textbooks were purchased from Paris; they were hastily translated by salaried members of the Viennese theatres. Before 1790 Viennese versions of operas-comiques had usually remained close to the originals. Later, in order to make them more appealing to Viennese audiences, the opera texts and music were often altered. Authentic performance was not a concern of the theatres. After 1803, following successful Viennese premieres of several great operas by Mehul and Cherubini, Vienna was flooded with operas by lesser men whose entertaining texts and tuneful music were good for the box office. The vogue for French opera caused some resentment among German musicians, though few contemporary German operas could match the popularity of the French ones. Opera-comique reminded a Viennese public nourished during the eighteenth century mostly on Italian opera, of the literary importance of opera. Viennese interest in op6ra-comique began to decline in 1816 with the rise to fame of Rossini. By 1820 Italian opera was back in fashion.

Thc devolopment of scene changing machinery in Great Britain is perhaps one of the few disciplines in the field of mechanical engineering which have virtually never relied upon new discoveries in technology for their advancement. Instead it has always lagged behind, perhaps modifying, certainly adapting, existing techniques. This study aims to examine the evolution of stage machinery during the nineteenth century, when many techniques had already been in existence and traditions firmly established since the previous century. The degree of development in the course of the nineteenth century was in many ways a reflection of the type of drama presented. As time went by, the public's taste for spectacle and visual presentation intensified and fostered an increase in the complexity of scene changing equipment. This in turn meant that many of the theatres built in the eighteenth century, especially in the provinces, were sadly inadequate for housing the vast quantities of equipment which machinists needed to install above and below the stage. As a result architects, began improving and enlarging existing theatres as well as building new ones, with increased stage width and depth, increased flying space above and increased depth below the stage.There was indeed an enormous rise in demand for scenic effects shortly after the beginning of the nineteenth century. This rapid growth caused the smaller existing Georgian playhouses, like the Theatre Royal, Ipswich, either to be modified in an attempt to cater for new trends, or to close. This dilemma alone must be acknowledged as a significant contributory factor in the decline of the Georgian playhouse and helps to explain the comparatively small number of such theatres surviving to the present day.The techniques of the stage machinist in the first half of the nineteenth century relied almost totally on technology and basic engineering principles which had existed for many years. Certainly the comparison often made between the backstage of a theatre of this period and a sailing ship is a very apt one, since both relied on manually hauled ropes, sheaves and the principles of mechanical advantage. However, these techniques had also been utilised for other, non-theatrical purposes. For instance, housed in the central tower of Beverley Minster is a large treadwheel, which was, and is still, used to raise equipment from ground level into the roof space [sec photo.1]. This is based upon the principles of mechanical advantage, in much the same way as many pieces of scene-changing equipment.Thus, because the theatrical profession was slow to adopt now apparatus and constantly replacing old machinery with brand new near-replicas, its evolution was comparatively slow. The job of a stage machinist was quite often a family concern, as the techniques, traditions, secrets and tricks of the trade were passed from father to son. The Sloman family and the Grieve family were particularly well known in London for their knowledge and expertise in this hold. Change was to a greater or lessor extent resisted and in any case many saw little need for change, especially those who were steeped in the traditions of the machinist and his machinery. It was, in fact, this basic resistance which caused a disruption in the evolutionary development of stage machinery. Many theatre architects were happy to furnish a traditional stage machinist with a blank drawing denoting "The Stage", requiring him to fill in the details as he saw fit, whilst the innovators devised all manner of new equipment, that which worked and sometimes that which emphatically did not. There was therefore a bifurcation, with the 'traditional school' refining the 'English wood stage' to a higher degree of sophistication, whilst the 'modern school' developed and attempted to apply the engineering technology associated with other disciplines. In essence, the latter attempted to replace muscle power with hydraulic or electrical power.This thesis documents the development of stage machinery from its comparatively primitive state at the beginning of the nineteenth century, through years of growth and expansion, and finally into the last decade of the century, when theatrical productions were in truth exercises in spectacle.

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The field covered contains the major phases of British socialist theatre between 1930 and 1979. It focuses on the issues raised by the concept of socialist theatre, such as those of class, politics and dramatic form, in order to discuss the relationships between agendas of political tasks, the development of suitable forms for their dramatic expression, and the nature of the audiences which have been attracted. The discussion draws on a range of contemporary sources which include unpublished scripts and other material, together with oral evidence from some practitioners. The historical episodes covered begin with the career of the Workers' Theatre Movement and its successors the Unity Theatres and the Left Book Club Theatre Guild in the 1930s. It then examines how this was continued during the Second World War; and how it was affected by the political and other circumstances of the immediate post-war years. Finally it deals with the revival of socialist theatre in Britain during the 19705. The thesis is intended to contribute to the understanding of the relations between theatre, politics and the labour movement by means of an historical perspective on concrete examples. It examines the extent to which the different examples achieved the objectives they set themselves, and in so doing discusses the circumstances which have made successful socialist theatre possible in Britain during this period.

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It is widely accepted that early American literature reflects the boundless social and moral optimism of "The Great Experiment", expresses certitude in the ultimate perfectibility of man in the New World. Equally widely held is the belief that American experience in the twentieth century has prompted something of a retreat from this optimistic position, has blunted the belief in -- crudely put -- the American Dream and that this retreat has been particularly marked in American fiction since World War Two. This thesis seems to confront such assumptions about the "American Nightmare", as described in contemporary American fiction, by examining the work of six post-War American fiction writers: three Jews -- Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud.and Chaim Potok and three non-Jews -- John Cheever, John Updike and William Burroughs. This arrangement allows for a discussion of the obvious literary differenlces between Jew and non-Jew in the period. Moreover, it allows for speculation about the cultural processes underlying such differences, processes which have enabled some writers to produce fictions reinforcing the values and principles of individual significance and moral virtue in a social context while the work of others powerfully argues the irrelevance or impossibility of such values in contemporary society. My object in this is not to make an equation whereby optimism equals good literature and pessimism equals bad literature. Rather it is to demonstrate the way in which the optimistic strain of American literature abides -- albeit in a somewhat muted form -- and to point up the paradoxical way in which it is the very Jewishness of their writing that has made the work of Bellow, Malamud and Potok seem so thoroughly American. In so doing, I hope to underline the singular contribution of Jewish Ameeican writing since ,1945 to the American literary canon.

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[From the introduction] : In my first chapter I will offer a review of Marechera's reputation and the critical reception given to his work, both during his life and since his death. In Chapter Two I Will outline the major theoretical issues raised by Marechera's work: Art versus psychological catharsis; the artist-as-communal-spokesman versus the artist-as-Romantic-individualist; nationalism versus literary universalism. Chapters Three, Four, Five and Six will then consider in sequence, the work produced in Oxford, in London and in Harare, tracing the writer's physical and psychological deterioration through his evolving prose style. Each of these chapters will also focus on a major relevant critical issue. Thus Chapter Three will examine The House of Hunger, written following Marechera's arrival in Oxford, in the context of 'culture clash', 'the African heritage' and Postcolonialism which so preoccupied its original reviewers. Chapter Four will examine Black Sunlight and The Black Insider, written while the author was destitute in London, in terms of Jung's 'neurosis or art' debate. Chapter Five will examine Mindblast and Chapter Six will examine Scrapiron Blues, both containing material written after Marecheras' return to Harare, making reference to the historical and socio-political context of post-colonial Zimbabwe and to the writer's unsuccessful attempts to establish a role with the nation builders. I will conclude in Chapter Seven by discussing Marechera's place within the Zimbabwean literary canon, the current relevance and influence of his work and the implications this holds for the future of Zimbabwean writing.