Background
Cahn, Victor L. was born on September 7, 1948 in New York City. Son of Judah and Evelyn (Baum) Cahn.
( When Victor Cahn's Shakespeare the Playwright was issue...)
When Victor Cahn's Shakespeare the Playwright was issued in 1991, it was highly recommended for any general public library and for academic collections at all undergraduate levels (Choice) and viewed as a useful guide for the general reader, as well as high school and undergraduate students Library Journal. Now Professor Cahn has revised his introduction to make the context of Shakespeare's plays more meaningful to the beginning researcher and to show how the plays have been performed from the 16th century onward. In addition, the bibliographies for each of the 37 plays have been updated to include the best new research. These updates and revisions will enhance the use of this guide for the general reader, student, and researcher, from high school onward. Since their first production four centuries ago, the plays of William Shakespeare have been the most widely produced, popularly acclaimed, and critically examined works in the world's literature. In this unique book, Victor L. Cahn, an acclaimed teacher of drama, guides the reader scene by scene through each of Shakespeare's thirty-seven plays, re-creating the freshness and theatrical effect of performance. Cahn has based his approach on the assumption that the fundamental appeal of Shakespeare's plays lies in the characters, and with clarity and subtlety he focuses on how the implications of the characters' actions and the nuances of their language contribute to the plays' impact. The introduction briefly traces Shakespeare's life and career, and explains some of the social and artistic circumstances that influenced his work. The plays are grouped by genre: Tragedies, Histories, Comedies, and Romances. This structure allows Cahn to explore Shalespeare's development in all four dramatic forms, as well as to suggest relationships between characters, themes, and images throughout the works. In addition, Cahn discusses the plays as reflective of Shakespeare's age, particularly the Renaissance concern with the tension between individual rights and social responsibility. The text is free from extensive scholarly apparatus, but valuable suggestions for further reading follow the analysis of each play, and a selected bibliography concludes the volume. The comprehensiveness of the book, as well as the accessibility and quality of its interpretations, make it a valuable resource for courses in Shakespeare, drama, and British literature, and a worthy addition to high school, college, university, and public library reference collections.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0275955222/?tag=2022091-20
("A Dish For The Gods" Julia Reynolds, a celebrated litera...)
"A Dish For The Gods" Julia Reynolds, a celebrated literary critic and media personality, hurries onstage to deliver a lecture. Before long, however, she finds herself unable to continue, and to help explain her predicament, she recalls events from her life. After dropping out of college, she returned to school in her late twenties and met Professor Greg Davidson, a classroom dynamo who soon appears onstage and thereafter moves in and out of her presentation. Subsequent scenes reveal how Greg inspired Julia to blossom intellectually, as well as how their personal relationship flourished. Soon, though, Julia faced great opportunities and profound choices, and the play dramatizes how the resolution of these issues determined the path of her life. Did she make the right decisions? Julia and the audience are left to wonder. “A Dish for the Gods is a strong love letter to complex women.” –reviewsoffbroadway.blogspot.com "Sheepskin" Sharon Sanders, a doctoral candidate in English, arrives at the home of Professor Wyatt Randall. He has just been appointed as a reader of her dissertation, the book-length project she has written to complete requirements for her degree. Initially he seems sympathetic, but when she returns to discuss the manuscript, his brutal criticism of her work shocks her. When he also implies that he expects sexual favors in exchange for his signature, she leaves in a fury. Not long after though, she returns, oozing flattery and flirtation that soon win him over. But before he can formally approve her manuscript, outside forces intrude, and Randall finds himself trapped between official procedures and his own shenanigans. The result is a comic portrait of male vanity, female manipulation, and the academic environment in which such exploitation may flourish.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692462422/?tag=2022091-20
Cahn, Victor L. was born on September 7, 1948 in New York City. Son of Judah and Evelyn (Baum) Cahn.
Bachelor of Arts in English, Columbia College, 1969. Master of Arts in English, New York University, 1973. Doctor of Philosophy in English, New York University, 1976.
English instructor, Mercersburg (Pennsylvania) Academy, 1969-1971; English instructor, Pomfret (Connecticut) School, 1976-1978; English instructor, Phillips Exeter (N.H.) Academy, 1978-1980; Professor of English, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine., 1981-1982; assistant Professor of English, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1982-1992; associate Professor of English, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, since 1992. Off Broadway critic Variety, 1972-1973.
( When Victor Cahn's Shakespeare the Playwright was issue...)
("A Dish For The Gods" Julia Reynolds, a celebrated litera...)
Commencement speaker Pomfret School, 1982.