Author Description
Shakespeare's Women And The Fin De Siècle Illuminates The Most Iconoclastic Performances Of Shakespeare's Heroines In Late Victorian Theatre, Through The Celebrity, Commentary, And Wider Careers Of The Actresses Who Played Them. By Bringing Together Fin-de-siècle Performances Of Shakespeare And Contemporary Victorian Drama For The First Time, This Book Illuminates The Vital Ways In Which Fin-de-siècle Shakespeare And Contemporary Victorian Theatre Culture Conditioned Each Other. Actresses' Movements Between Shakespeare And Fin-de-siècle Roles Reveal The Collisions And Unexpected Consonances Between Apparently Independent Areas Of The Fin-de-siècle Repertory. Performances Including Ellen Terry's Lady Macbeth, Madge Kendal's Rosalind, And Lillie Langtry's Cleopatra Illuminate Fin-de-siècle Shakespeare's Lively Intersections With Cultural Phenomena Including The 'jack The Ripper' Killings, Aestheticism, The Suicide Craze, And The Rise Of Metropolitan Department Stores. If, As Previous Studies Have Shown, Shakespeare Was Everywhere In Victorian Culture, Sophie Duncan Explores The Surprising Ways In Which Late-victorian Culture, From Dracula To Pornography, And From Ruskin To The Suffragettes, Inflected Shakespeare. Via A Wealth Of Unpublished Archival Material, Duncan Reveals Women's Creative Networks At The Fin De Siècle, And How Shakespearean Performance Traditions Moved Between Actresses Via Little-studied Performance Genealogies. At The Same Time, Controversial New Stage Business Made Fin-de-siècle Shakespeare As Much A Crucible For Debates Over Gender Roles And Sexuality As Plays By Ibsen And Shaw. Increasingly, Actresses' Creative Networks Encompassed Suffragist Activists, Who Took Personal Inspiration From Star Shakespearean Actresses. From A Salome-esque Juliet To A Feminist Paulina, Fin-de-siècle Actresses Created Cultural Legacies Which Shakespeare-in-performance Still Negotiates Today.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This work investigates how late-Victorian actresses and their performances of Shakespearean heroines functioned as a critical nexus for the cultural, political, and social anxieties of the fin de siècle. Sophie Duncan, a scholar of Victorian theatre, utilizes previously unpublished archival materials to argue that Shakespearean performance was not a static tradition but a dynamic site of exchange that mirrored and shaped contemporary debates on gender, sexuality, and aestheticism. By mapping the careers of prominent actresses, the book demonstrates how Shakespearean roles were reinterpreted through the lens of modern phenomena ranging from the rise of department stores to the suffrage movement.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of performance genealogies and creative networks among late-Victorian actresses.
- Examination of the intersection between Shakespearean roles and cultural phenomena like Aestheticism and the Jack the Ripper killings.
- Case studies of specific performances, including Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth and Lillie Langtry as Cleopatra.
- Documentation of the influence of suffragist activists on Shakespearean interpretation.
Scope Limits
- The study focuses primarily on the British theatre scene at the end of the nineteenth century.
- It does not provide a comprehensive history of Shakespearean performance across the entire Victorian era.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and theatre historians recognize this text as a significant contribution to the study of performance history and gender dynamics in the late nineteenth century. Readers frequently note the depth of the archival research and the clarity with which the author connects theatrical practice to broader social shifts.
Page Count:
288
Publication Date:
2016-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0192508210
ISBN-13:
9780192508218
Cultural History
Gender Studies
Theatre History
Literary Criticism
Shakespearean Studies