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Abstract J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) is a novelist, dramatist, essayist and literary critic. His dramatic career began in 1932 with Dangerous Corner (Brome 136). In J.B. Priestley De Vitis and Kalson say ”Priestley the dramatist is a unique figure.... from Bernard Shaw to John Osborne British drama is a waste land. It is Priestley, the solitary Englishman, who bridges the gap, along with Sean O’Casey the Irishman and James Bridie the Scot. In the 1940s only these three could be named in one breath as dramatists of distinction and serious intent actively engaged in expanding the theater’s horizons, with Priestley by far the most prolific” (116). Matthew Norgate argues that Priestley’s writings opened fire on the predominant ”trivial’’ literature of the 1940s: ”At this time the emphasis was on the trivial, and even so business was not good.... Priestley had opened fire with the first attempt to restore serious drama with his Music at Night” (28). Priestley’s plays may be divided into two main types, the time plays and the social plays. In the time plays he is mainly concerned with the theme of time. This type centers on Time and the Conways (1937) and I Have Been Here Before (1937) (Ward Longman Companion of 20th Century Literature 1001). In the second type, ”the serious plays” as Ward calls them in his Twentieth -Century Literature (139), Priestley reveals a great interest in the relationship between man and the community. In these plays he writes about man’s responsibility for his fellowmen and his commitment to the community. These plays include People at Sea (1937), They Came to a City (1943), An Inspector Calls (1945), Summer Day’s Dream (1949) and Home is Tomorrow (1950). |