Coming Home: The Soldier’s Return in Twentieth-Century American Drama

The book examines fifty-five American plays written and produced during the twentieth century which depict the return of the soldier. The plays are analyzed for common themes which identify a genre of play, the homecomer play. Included is a select history of the homecomer play dating from Classical Greece to the twentieth century. The book sheds new light on some important American plays and playwrights. Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra, for example, is seen in a new way by being examined as a homecomer play. The historical and sociological impact of both plays and productions is also examined.