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Fatal Desire : Women, Sexuality, and the English Stage, 1660–1720 / Jean I. Marsden.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]Copyright date: 2006Description: 1 online resource (232 p.) : 4 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501728525
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 822/.3093522 22
LOC classification:
  • PR698.W6 M27 2006eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Female Spectatorship, Jeremy Collier, and the Antitheatrical Debate -- 2. Women Watching: The Female Spectator in Late-Seventeenth-Century Comedy -- 3. Falling Women: She-Tragedy and Sexual Spectacle -- 4. Women Writing Women: Female Authors of She-Tragedy -- 5. Nicholas Rowe and the Second Generation of She-Tragedy -- 6. Sex, Politics, and the Hanoverian Succession: Refiguring Lady Jane Grey -- Afterword -- Bibliography -- Index of Plays Cited -- General Index
Summary: Informed by film theory and a broad historical approach, Fatal Desire examines the theatrical representation of women in England, from the Restoration to the early eighteenth century—a period when for the first time female actors could perform in public. Jean I. Marsden maintains that the feminization of serious drama during this period is tied to the cultural function of theater. Women served as symbols of both domestic and imperial propriety, and so Marsden links the representation of women on the stage to the social context in which the plays appeared and to the moral and often political lessons they offered the audience. The witty heroines of comedies were usually absorbed into the social fabric by marrying similarly lighthearted gentlemen, but the heroines of tragedy suffered for their sins, real or perceived. That suffering served the dual purpose of titillating and educating the theater audience. Marsden discusses such plays as William Wycherley's Plain Dealer (1676), John Vanbrugh's Provoked Wife (1697), Thomas Otway's Orphan (1680), Thomas Southerne's Fatal Marriage (1694), and William Congreve's Mourning Bride (1697). The author also addresses tragedies written by three female playwrights, Mary Pix, Catharine Trotter, and Delarivier Manley, and sketches developments in tragedy during the period.
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Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781501728525

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Female Spectatorship, Jeremy Collier, and the Antitheatrical Debate -- 2. Women Watching: The Female Spectator in Late-Seventeenth-Century Comedy -- 3. Falling Women: She-Tragedy and Sexual Spectacle -- 4. Women Writing Women: Female Authors of She-Tragedy -- 5. Nicholas Rowe and the Second Generation of She-Tragedy -- 6. Sex, Politics, and the Hanoverian Succession: Refiguring Lady Jane Grey -- Afterword -- Bibliography -- Index of Plays Cited -- General Index

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Informed by film theory and a broad historical approach, Fatal Desire examines the theatrical representation of women in England, from the Restoration to the early eighteenth century—a period when for the first time female actors could perform in public. Jean I. Marsden maintains that the feminization of serious drama during this period is tied to the cultural function of theater. Women served as symbols of both domestic and imperial propriety, and so Marsden links the representation of women on the stage to the social context in which the plays appeared and to the moral and often political lessons they offered the audience. The witty heroines of comedies were usually absorbed into the social fabric by marrying similarly lighthearted gentlemen, but the heroines of tragedy suffered for their sins, real or perceived. That suffering served the dual purpose of titillating and educating the theater audience. Marsden discusses such plays as William Wycherley's Plain Dealer (1676), John Vanbrugh's Provoked Wife (1697), Thomas Otway's Orphan (1680), Thomas Southerne's Fatal Marriage (1694), and William Congreve's Mourning Bride (1697). The author also addresses tragedies written by three female playwrights, Mary Pix, Catharine Trotter, and Delarivier Manley, and sketches developments in tragedy during the period.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Aug 2024)