"Mood-Stuff" and "Metaphoric Utterance": Norman Corwin's radio art

Abstract

Norman Corwin (1910-2011) is widely acclaimed as the best radio writer in early American radio art (from the early 1920s to 1950). Ample research has been done on him as a radio dramatist, patriotic propagandist, and innovative journalist yet there are areas of his radio art career that have had little or no research. His development as a radio artist before he became a nationally discussed figure has had little scholarship as well as his activity in musical composition which had a formative impact on his radio art. In addition there is a need for clear statements of his aesthetic theories of radio art. This study directly attempts to fill these gaps in scholarship using original scripts, published letters and interviews, historical recordings as well as interviews with Corwin. There is a specific focus on his style as a radio artist rather than his political views or his larger cultural setting. The conclusions to this study of Corwin's work have broad application to radio art studies, supporting an argument for inclusive definitions of the genres radio art and radio play and exhibiting how musicological analytical approaches to radio play analysis enhance existing literary ones.