Abstract
Despite their differences in upbringing, education, and social class, Barbara Undershaft and Eliza Doolittle are truly “Shavian sisters”: They are energetic, independent women who are fighting poverty, each in her own way. Barbara is a Salvation Army major who works with impoverished Londoners; Eliza, impoverished herself, is desperate to create a better life for herself. This chapter introduces the themes of language and theater that are central to this book. It explains the connections between Shaw, Karl Marx, and Jacques Derrida, and it introduces the terms “metadrama” and “postmodernism.”
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Reynolds, J. (2022). Shavian Sisters. In: Language and Metadrama in Major Barbara and Pygmalion. Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96071-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96071-1_1
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-96070-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-96071-1
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