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A Comparative History of the Literary Draft in Europe
Edited by Olga Beloborodova and Dirk Van Hulle
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXV] 2024
► pp. 514–526

2.3.5
Radio

Between text and sound

After contextualising the radio medium in relation to theatre, television and film, and then distinguishing between different types of radio drama, this chapter argues that radio plays are a hybrid (text/sound) art form, as opposed to a “purely acoustic” one, that needs to be researched from an archival perspective, which includes not only drafts, production scripts and recordings, but also ancillary materials such as letters and documents preserved at broadcasting services. In order to illustrate this point, it uses genetic criticism as a methodological framework and four case studies broadcast on the various networks of the BBC: Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (1954), Harold Pinter’s A Slight Ache (1959), Caryl Churchill’s Identical Twins (1968) and Andrew Sachs’s The Revenge (1978).
Keywords: genetic criticism, radio drama, radio play, feature, transmediality, BBC, Dylan Thomas, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Andrew Sachs
Article outline
  • Genetic criticism and radio drama
  • Dylan Thomas – Under Milk Wood (1954)
  • Harold Pinter – A Slight Ache (1959)
  • Caryl Churchill – Identical Twins (1968)
  • Andrew Sachs – The Revenge (1978)
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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