While the Sun Shinesに見る喜劇の諸相 : その時事性と普遍性を中心として

Some Aspects of a Comedy in While the Sun Shines : Their Topicality and Universality

Nakamura Yoshito

広島大学教育学部紀要. 第二部

Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Hiroshima University. Part 2

Terence Rattigan began his career as a writer of popular middle class light comedies. While the Sun Shines (1943), one of his early plays, was his second big success of those light comedies. It enjoyed, it is told, a London run of more than one thousand performances. It is a play full of scenes where we can laugh at and enjoy witty conversations of characters. There is a remark, however, that those witty conversations of characters depend too much on allusions to current topics of those days, that is, the Second World War and life in wartime London.

It is the aim of this paper to examine whether we can sufficiently appreciate the play with a little background knowledge of the war and life in wartime London. We also examine some other features of the play both as a comedy and a farce.

English and American literature [ 930 ]

jpn

広島大学教育学部

[ISSN] 0440-8713

[NCID] AN0021336X