The Twentieth Century: “Formalization, Polarization, and Fictionalization”

Abstract

“Formalization, Polarization, and Fictionalization,” opens with A.C. Swinburne’s interpretation of the playwrights serving as a bridge from late Victorian assessments to T.S. Eliot’s early- twentieth-century criticism. I next consider formalist readings of the two writers, particularly those of Caroline Spurgeon, before considering the more contextualized interpretations of Una Ellis-Fermor. Following a focus on mid-century critiques by critics such as Irving Ribner, who was heavily influenced by the polemics of the Cold War, the chapter concludes with an examination of fictional and cinematic representations of the connection toward the latter part of the twentieth century, including novels by Anthony Burgess, films such as Shakespeare in Love, and plays like Peter Whelan’s School of Night.