A Thousand Clowns | On the Moral Character of the American Regime: A Thousand Clowns Revisited
In the following essay, Scorza examines how A Thousand Clowns ‘‘may reveal those important popular views which ‘great literature’ either disdains or conceals.’’
Whatever may be the artistic and intellectual shortcomings of distinctly ‘‘popular’’ works of literature, such works are of great value to those who would seek to understand a culture as it understands itself. A work of literature which is decidedly popular in both its appeal and its reception may speak the true voice of a culture, a voice which may well be muted in a more grandly conceived work of ‘‘great literature.’’ A popular play like Herb Gardner’s A Thousand Clowns, which ultimately defends the moral character of conventional American life, may allow one...
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