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Louis Kronenberger: A critical perspective of his life and career
Abstract
This study explores the life and work of Louis Kronenberger, Drama Critic for Time magazine from 1938 to 1961. His writings on the Broadway Theatre between 1938 and 1961 have left us an important record of this significant period of American theatre history. In addition, his role as a literary scholar, editor, and as a social historian have provided us a perspective of American social and cultural changes from 1938 to 1980. This dissertation then is a comprehensive study of a writer and critic in a period of history that includes World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the McCarthy hearings. The study covers his personal life, his theories of literary, cultural and dramatic criticism, an analysis of his New York reviews, an analysis of his theories of comedy and the contradictions between his theories and his reviews. Finally, Kronenberger's relation with Time magazine, his willingness, or lack of it, to discuss important issues in his reviews, and his success as a reviewer, as a playwright, and as a critic are analyzed and conclusions drawn.
Subject Area
Theater|Biographies
Recommended Citation
Dyer, Florence Bradburn Hughes, "Louis Kronenberger: A critical perspective of his life and career" (1992). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9331414.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9331414