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Deathtraps: The Postmodern Comedy Thriller
"This is an extremely intelligent, interesting, and well written book." ―Murder Is Academic "... compelling analysis of the comedy thriller... " ―Theatre Studies "... almost as much fun to read as is seeing the actual plays discussed... " ―Journal of Popular Culture The phenomenal success of such plays as Deathtrap and Sleuth heralded the advent of a new form of detective play―the comedy thriller. Carlson takes the wraps off the comedy thriller and reveals its postmodern effects. He looks at all the elements of the thriller―openings, settings, characters, plot lines, the role of the audience, and endings―and shows how they work to overturn the conventions of realism in detective drama.
224 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1993
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About the author
Marvin A. Carlson
65 books7 followersPh.D.in Drama and Theatre, Cornell University. Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre, Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies.
Research and teaching interests include dramatic theory and Western European theatre history and dramatic literature, especially of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. He has been awarded the ATHE Career Achievement Award, the George Jean Nathan Prize, the Bernard Hewitt prize, the George Freedley Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has been a Walker-Ames Professor at the University of Washington, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Indiana University, a Visiting Professor at Freie Universität Berlin, and a Fellow of the American Theatre. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Athens. His best-known book, Theories of the Theatre (Cornell University Press, 1993), has been translated into seven languages. His 2001 book, The Haunted Stage won the Calloway Prize.
His newest book, Speaking in Tongues, was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2006.
Research and teaching interests include dramatic theory and Western European theatre history and dramatic literature, especially of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. He has been awarded the ATHE Career Achievement Award, the George Jean Nathan Prize, the Bernard Hewitt prize, the George Freedley Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has been a Walker-Ames Professor at the University of Washington, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Indiana University, a Visiting Professor at Freie Universität Berlin, and a Fellow of the American Theatre. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Athens. His best-known book, Theories of the Theatre (Cornell University Press, 1993), has been translated into seven languages. His 2001 book, The Haunted Stage won the Calloway Prize.
His newest book, Speaking in Tongues, was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2006.
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