Kim Tae-woo: A Study of Tom Stoppard: The World as Chaos and Order

“The novel came and went,” while “the play came and stayed.” —Tom Stoppard. Tom Stoppard is one of the leading British playwrights still living. Life does not always go according to plan; chance and chaos shape its course. The same was true of Stoppard’s journey after he decided to become a full-time writer. His much-anticipated novel Lord Malquist and Mr Moon departed, while the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead stayed in its place. He was twenty-nine. The play brought him fame as a playwright rather than a novelist, and even recently, past the age of eighty, he demonstrated his enduring presence with the work Leopoldstadt. What made him a playwright called one of Britain’s leading figures was more than the over half-century during which Stoppard was active. A close analysis of his works reveals his distinctive traits, such as dramatizing scientific theories like quantum mechanics or detective fiction, and using comic language distinctly colored by Britain. Encountering the view of humanity rooted in individualism and the worldview of chaos and order permeating his works also brings us closer to Stoppard as a playwright. In this sense, Tom Stoppard: The World as Chaos and Order, which selects twelve of his works through the twentieth century, helps readers understand changes in his preferred themes and forms. Another major reward of the book is that, unlike many literary studies, it reveals the author’s personal view of humanity and the world, showing that our lives are not separate from literature.

Korean title: 톰 스토파드 연구: 혼돈과 질서로서의 세계

Korean author: 김태우

Korean publisher: 국민대학교출판부

ISBN-13: 9788978125314