Rival Queens: Actresses, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century British Theater

Felicity Nussbaum

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2010

Rival Queens

Actresses, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century British Theater

Felicity Nussbaum

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812206890

Overview
Contents

About this book

Historians of British theater have often noted that the eighteenth century was an age not of the author but of the actor. In Rival Queens, Felicity Nussbaum argues that the period might more accurately be seen as the age of women in the theater, and more particularly as the age of the actress.

Author / Editor information

Felicity Nussbaum is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of numerous books, including The Limits of the Human: Fictions of Anomaly, Race, and Gender in the Long Eighteenth Century.

Reviews

"[Rival Queens] has vital ramifications not only for a renewed study of the eighteenth-century theater but also for our understandings of the performance of gender and, specifically, femininity across the period."—Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"Skillfully interweaving analysis of a breadth of biographical source materials with literary analysis of plays and understandings of the economic context in which these women worked, the author offers a compelling argument for the ways in which theatrical economics disrupted simple stagings of femininity."—Theater Research International

"Excellent."—TLS

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2010

"A pleasure to read, with a deft balance of anecdote and theory, statistical data and narrative. Nussbaum, an acknowledged expert on gender and literature in the long eighteenth century, demonstrates her facility with eighteenth-century theater as well. The book will certainly appeal to feminists, theater historians, and scholars looking for nuanced histories of acting."—Theater Survey

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	viii
Introduction: At Stage’s Edge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. The Economics of Celebrity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Chapter 2. “Real, Beautiful Women”: Rival Queens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Chapter 3. Actresses’ Memoirs: Exceptional Virtue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
Chapter 4. Actresses and Patrons: The Theatrical Contract Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
Chapter 5. The Actress and Performative Property: Catherine Clive Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Chapter 6. The Actress, Travesty, and Nation: Margaret Woffington Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Chapter 7. The Actress and Material Femininity: Frances Abington Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
Epilogue: Contracted Virtue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	381

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 392
Illustrations
- Other: 29 illus.
Keywords: Literature; Women's Studies; Gender Studies; Cultural Studies; Gender Studies

eBook

Published: October 11, 2011
ISBN: 9780812206890