ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights the complex nature of a symbolist play conceived as an intrinsically 'collaborative' type of communication taking place in the multi-coded medium of theatre. It explores a further aspect of collaboration, in the cooperation of multiple forms, as opposed to authors, in the production of meaning. The book discusses collaboration as a tool for the interpretation and reading of mural religious imagery, identifying a range of mutually-interacting contexts in which the largely illiterate faithful could construct meaning, in the medieval church. It traces a genetic line linking The Inheritors to Israel Zangwill and Louis Cowen's The Premier and the Painter, itself an intrinsically 'collaborative' source. The book considers the fate of work by two Nazi sympathisers, Francis Stuart and Henry Williamson, both of whom collaborated actively with the 'wrong', losing, side during World War 2.
