The English Crime Play in the Twentieth Century

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

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2. The Body in the Library and the Body on Stage

   1. The Body in the Library and the Body on Stage

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 1-17

3. A History of the Crime Play

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

      PDF

   2. From Victorian Melodrama to the End of the Twenties

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 21-33

   3. From the 1930s to the End of World War II

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 34-47

   4. From the End of World War II to 1955

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 48-63

   5. From 1956 to the End of the Sixties

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 64-77

   6. From Sleuth to In-Yer-Face Theatre

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 78-93

4. A Poetics of the Crime Play

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95

      PDF

   2. Settings and Stage Sets

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 97-116

   3. Timing and Plot “Construction”

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 117-133

   4. Dramatic Characters

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 134-153

   5. Violence, Crime and Punishment

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 154-170

   6. Genre, Generic Development and Subgenres

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 171-193

5. The Crime Play and Detective Fiction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 195-195

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   2. Stage Adaptations of Agatha Christie’s Detective Stories

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 197-217

   3. Other Types of Detective Fiction Adapted for the Stage

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 218-237

6. Coda: The Twentieth-Century English Crime Play — A View from 2015

   1. Coda: The Twentieth-Century English Crime Play — A View from 2015

      • Beatrix Hesse

      Pages 238-241

7. Back Matter

   Pages 242-290

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This is the first comprehensive study of the English crime play, presenting a survey of 250 plays performed in the London West End between 1900 and 2000. The first part is historically orientated while the second one establishes a tentative poetics of the genre. The third part presents an analysis of some 20 plays adapted from detective fiction.

• Agatha Christie
• Crime plays
• Twentieth-Century Drama
• 1900
• 20th century
• body
• corpus
• detective fiction
• drama
• genre
• play
• stage
• theatre
• Victorian era
• violence
• British and Irish Literature

• Universität Passau, Germany

  Beatrix Hesse

Beatrix Hesse is Professor of English/ Cultural and Media Studies, University of Passau, Germany. She is the author of Shakespeare's Comedies From a Pragmatic Communication Theory Approach (1998).

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