Drama as Cultural Sign

way that is less true of other genres. Unlike the novel it speaks in the present tense, and the sense of shared experience which derives from this makes it a sensitive instrument for plotting changes in cultural pressure, for responding to changing ideological, social, and aesthetic moods. It is this characteristic which makes it so valuable for the cultural critic, as it quite literally dramatizes the tensions and displays the public and private face of society. That it has failed to engage the attention it deserves, not only from dramatic critics but from those committed to analysis of the American temper, is thus the more surprising. But of that neglect there can be no doubt. In compiling bibliographical essays for the annual American Literary Scholarship, Walter Meserve found himself repeatedly lamenting the standard of the material he was reviewing. In 1966 he observed that of the books or essays which he had read would have any lasting value because few people take American drama seriously. The following year he found critical material on American drama to be extremely slight-poorly written, ineffectively substantiated . . . and making confused and commonplace observations. In fact the serious academic study of American drama is a comparatively recent phenomenon and did not start on any scale until the 1950s. This is reflected in the late emergence of the principal drama periodicals: Educational Theatre Journal, 1949; Tulane Drama Review, 1955; Modern Drama, 1958; Theatre Survey, 1960; Drama Survey, 1961; Comparative Drama, 1967; Yale Theatre, 1968; Performance, 1971

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