Doctor Faustus Lights The Lights

Written in 1938, the play uses the invention of the electric light bulb as its central metaphor. Questions about technology and its gifts of god-like powers are brilliantly (and literally) explored in Stein’s play. Stein, an American-born novelist, poet and playwright, was a central figure in the Parisian and New York avant-garde art world of the early 20th century. She lived as many artists of the day, as an expatriate, coining the phrase “the lost generation” to describe her many artist-friends. She is considered a literary innovator and a pioneer of modernist literature. She was also a keen admirer of Cubism, long before it became a popular modern art movement.