Bernard Kops

Fantasist, London Jew, Apocalyptic Humorist

By (author) William Baker, Jeanette Roberts Shumaker

Publication date:

18 December 2013

Length of book:

168 pages

Publisher

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Dimensions:

238x159mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781611476569

This is the first book-length study of the work of contemporary writer Bernard Kops. Born on November 28, 1926 to Dutch-Jewish immigrants, Bernard Kops became famous after the production of his play The Hamlet of Stepney Green: A Sad Comedy with Some Songs in 1958. This play, like much of his work, focuses on the conflicts between young and old. Identified as an “angry young man,” Kops, like his contemporaries John Osborne, Shelagh Delaney, and Harold Pinter, belonged to the so-called new wave of British drama that emerged in the mid-1950s.
Kops went on to create important documentaries about the Blitz and living in London during the early 1940s. He has written two autobiographies, over ten novels, many journalistic pieces, and more than forty plays for TV, stage, and radio. A prolific poet, Kops has authored a long pamphlet poem and eight poetry collections. Now in his mid-80s, the prolific and versatile Kops still produces, his creativity undimmed by age.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One: The Writer’s I
Chapter Two: The Role and Function of Family
Chapter Three: Identity Formation, Self-Discovery, and Aging
Chapter Four: Jewish Identity within British Culture
Chapter Five: Sex and Politics
Chapter Six: Issues of Mental Health
Chapter Seven: Kops on Kops: The Interviews
Appendix: More Radio Plays
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors

William Baker and Jeanette Roberts Shumaker offer a view of the vast range of a fearless, fascinating writer. The book deals with Kops’s writing of memoir, novels, stage and radio plays and poems, and examines themes such as Jewish identity, aging, family, sex and mental illness. Kops sees the latter as a form of imprisonment, most notably in his 1981 play, Ezra, which has poetic-genius-turned-wartime-antisemitic-propagandist Ezra Pound ranting inside a literal cage. Kops himself was institutionalised for a period, when he wrote poetry that Baker and Shumaker describe as a means of portraying characters who 'escape their pain through destructive self-delusions'. Delusion is a word that often occurs in discussions of Kops’s prolific output and, in this regard, Baker and Shumaker quote one critic’s observation that reality for Kops is 'one long, manic vaudeville act'. Kops can certainly switch rapidly — from prose to poetry, fantasy to realism, theme to theme — and not always waiting for his audience to keep pace. All is underpinned by a sharp-edged humour bred in the harsh but warm conditions of his beloved East End. And, even though he has moved some way from The Hamlet of Stepney Green, his first play, it is as part of the 'new wave' of 1950s dramatists along with fellow Jewish writers Harold Pinter and Arnold Wesker, that his reputation rests. Baker and Shumaker’s book is a useful guide into the much broader territory that Kops inhabits.