British Enlightenment Theatre


Book Description

Reveals how England's eighteenth-century theatre dramatized anti-imperial protest, and gave voice to oppressed groups.




Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage, 1740-1820


Book Description

Reveals the contribution of Irish writers to the Georgian English stage; argues that theatre is an important strand of the Irish Enlightenment.







Dramaturgy


Book Description

Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre is a substantial history of the origins of dramaturgs and literary managers. It frames the explosion of professional appointments in England within a wider continental map reaching back to the Enlightenment and eighteenth-century Germany, examining the work of the major theorists and practitioners of dramaturgy, from Granville Barker and Gotthold Lessing to Brecht and Tynan. This study positions Brecht's model of dramaturgy as central to the worldwide revolution in theatre-making practices, and it also makes a substantial argument for Granville Barker's and Tynan's contributions to the development of literary management. With the territories of play and performance-making being increasingly hotly contested, and the public's appetite for new plays showing no sign of diminishing, Mary Luckhurst investigates the dramaturg as a cultural and political phenomenon.




A Cultural History of Theatre in the Age of Enlightenment


Book Description

French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, 'the general effect of the theatre is to strengthen the national character to augment the national inclinations, and to give a new energy to all the passions'. During the Enlightenment, the advancement of radical ideas along with the emergence of the bourgeois class contributed to a renewed interest in theatre's efficacy, informed by philosophy yet on behalf of politics. While the 18th century saw a growing desire to define the unique and specific features of a nation's drama, and audiences demanded more realistic portrayals of humanity, theatre is also implicated in this age of revolutions. A Cultural History of Theatre in the Age of Enlightenment examines these intersections, informed by the writings of key 18th-century philosophers. Richly illustrated with 45 images, the ten chapters each take a different theme as their focus: institutional frameworks; social functions; sexuality and gender; the environment of theatre; circulation; interpretations; communities of production; repertoire and genres; technologies of performance; and knowledge transmission.




Dramatic Extracts in Seventeenth-Century English Manuscripts


Book Description

Throughout the seventeenth century, early modern play readers and playgoers copied dramatic extracts into their commonplace books, verse miscellanies, diaries, and songbooks. This is the first book to examine these often overlooked texts, which reveal what early modern audiences and readers took, literally and figuratively, from plays.




The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe


Book Description

James Melton examines the rise of the public in 18th-century Europe. A work of comparative synthesis focusing on England, France and the German-speaking territories, this a reassessment of what Habermas termed the bourgeois public sphere.




The Players' Advice to Hamlet


Book Description

Outlining a classical 'rhetorical' system, this is the first serious overview of how European actors c.1550-1800 thought about acting.




Illegitimate Theatre in London, 1770-1840


Book Description

This book explores British illegitimate theatre towards the end of the eighteenth century.




Shadows of the Enlightenment


Book Description

A broad exploration of the collision and coexistence of classical and modernizing forces within tragic drama during the Enlightenment.