Audio Drama Modernism: The Missing Link between Descriptive Phonograph Sketches and Microphone Plays on the Radio

Audio Drama and Modernism explores the development of political and modernist sound drama during the first 40 years of the 20th Century, highlighting the contributions of British modernist radio writers and auteurs who navigated censorship and containment. Key figures such as Russell Hunting, Reginald Berkeley, and D.G. Bridson made innovative contributions to sound fiction.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 339 pages
Publication date: 20 November 2021
Publisher: Springer Verlag, Singapore

Audio Drama and Modernism delves into the evolution of political and modernist sound drama during the first half of the 20th century. It showcases the remarkable contributions made by pioneers of the phonograph age to sound fiction, both before, during, and after the Great War. Author Tim Crook provides a captivating examination of prominent British modernist radio writers and auteurs, shedding light on their intricate negotiations with the forces of institutional containment and dramatic censorship. Through meticulous research, Crook unveils the stories of key figures such as Russell Hunting, who, after facing imprisonment in the United States for creating 'sound pornography,' journeyed to Britain to pioneer sound comedy and montage in the pre-Radio era. He also highlights the works of Reginald Berkeley, who penned the first full-length anti-war play for the BBC in 1925, as well as the struggles of D.G. Bridson, Olive Shapley, and Joan Littlewood to give a Marxist voice to the working classes on British radio.

Weight: 457g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9789811582431
Edition number: 1st ed. 2020