American Author Thesis
Now that you have written your essay, we ask that you reflect on the reading portion of the experience and write 100-150 words about your author.
Think of what you write as advice for someone next year and beyond, someone who (like you were doing last fall) is thinking about choosing your author - and maybe even the same three books - to read for the assignment.
3 comments:
Riley (Brown):
To be perfectly honest, Albee and I had a love-hate relationship. To begin with, the looming dread of reading nine of his plays didn't exactly enthuse me to get cracking. But, upon reflection, his works remain not only provocative and intense, but also extremely touching, interesting and downright creepy.
And that is what makes them so lovely!
A lot of themes commonly associate between his works, which helps the process greatly especially when such works are so intense.
Some of my favorite pieces include:
Everything in the Garden
Counting the Ways
The American Dream
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
I feel, that for optimum analysis, it is ideal to read a fair few of his plays. Doing so truly helps to get a wider view of what Albee aims to explore in his works.
Although it was a slow beginning, because I was new to a playwright as provocative as Albee, by the end I felt as if I could readily bow at his little genius feet.
Because he is. A genius, that is.
And his plays are nothing but exemplary.
Give 'em a go.
Edward Albee's plays for the most part, contemplate families and relationships often with an provocative, fierce focus. Albee's work provides an insightful into modern day relationships and their failures. The plays consistently captivated my full attention with intense, raging dialog and unique (sometimes slightly disturbing) scenarios. Most of the plays have common themes and while they can be intense, it remains interesting to analyze and write about. Personally, I enjoyed works such as, A Delicate Balance, Three Tall Women (specifically act 2), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Marriage Play. Over the course of author thesis I read six books and then wrote about four. Right off the bat, I was captivated by Albee's work and continued to enjoy reading his work throughout the process. Albee is an absolutely brilliant playwright and his exemplary work made the Author Thesis process as enjoyable as it can be.
Edward Albee stood out to me while I was researching authors, due to the profound nature of his work. His ability to incorporate a combination of comedic and sometimes vulgar plot twists throughout his plays really engages the reader, and makes them consider the way different people are able to cope with problems regarding their loved ones. Also, Albee explores the extensive issues within different types of relationships, and how these problems are able to eat away at people and practically drive them to insanity. Although many of his plays do not have a hopeful and uplifting ending, they lead to a higher realization of the characters and their overall self worth. The use of dialogue in all of his plays has the purpose of personifying the character’s emotions, as well as revealing tension and doubt between the characters speaking. It is amazing how Albee was able to make me feel as though I was actually observing the scenes live, due to the detail and starkness of his words. Of the six Albee plays that I read, the two I enjoyed the most were A Delicate Balance and the second act of Three Tall Women. I ended up writing about five of the six plays I read, and although Author Thesis can seem a bit scary and intimidating, having an out of the box author such as Albee made the whole experience positive and enjoyable.
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