UD Press book honored

2:28 p.m., Nov. 29, 2004-- No Kidding: Clown as Protagonist in 20th-Century Theatre, by Donald Cameron McManus, published by the University of Delaware Press, has been selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice magazine. The award will be announced in the January 2005 issue of the magazine.

Choice, the official review publication of the Association of College Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, is the primary source of reviews for academic librarians. Less than 10 percent of the titles reviewed in Choice and less than 3 percent of the books submitted for review receive this honor.

This is the third year in a row that a UD Press book has received the prestigious award. Shakespeare’s Imitations by Mark Taylor won the 2003 award, and Beauty Raises the Dead: Literature and Loss in the Fin de Siècle by Robert Ziegler won the 2002 award.

McManus, who is on the theatre faculty at Franklin & Marshall College, was a clown himself, as well as an actor, director and musician, while living in Canada.

His book offers a literary analysis of the role of the clown in modern drama, the use of clowns by contemporary playwrights, such as Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht, clowns in films and a look at well-known European and American clowns.

In his book, McManus writes, “Clown has become, in contemporary theatre, a character from whom audiences can expect philosophizing, angst or political criticisms as much as physical comedy and fractured language.” While disruptive, they also act as a “bridge between the mimetic world of the play, or show, and world of the audience.”

The University of Delaware Press publishes books in all fields of scholarship with major strengths in literary studies and also publishes the series, Historical and Cultural Studies in Delaware and the Eastern Shore. Donald Mell, professor of English, chairs the editorial board, and Karen Druliner is managing editor.

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