Sanja Nikčević: Affirmative Croatian Drama or Long Live the Puritans, 2003.

Editor: Sanja Nikčević
This book is the continuation of the author’s research on American drama and is based on a rather original constitutive principle – the relation of drama towards the myth called “The American Dream”. Implementing this principle, the author proves that there are two distinctive directions in American Realistic drama: subversive and affirmative American drama. The first one depicts losers and thus negates the effectiveness of the American Dream; the other affirms the fundamental values of that Puritanical myth. The book consists of two parts (“The Basic Premises of the Work” and “Directions of Affirmative Drama”) and analyses over a hundred plays with an emphasis on comedies and melodramas as the often despised genres. Describing the structural characteristics of a particular affirmative direction, the author proves its legitimacy and at once points out to its sociological significance and purpose within the society.