ENGLISH

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

Book information

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
Year
2010
ISBN
0812242335, 9780812242331
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
8 MB (8904598 bytes)
Pages
391\392
Topic
History
Time added
2023-02-08 14:09:46

Description

In eighteenth-century England, actresses were frequently dismissed as mere prostitutes trading on their sexual power rather than their talents. Yet they were, Felicity Nussbaum argues, central to the success of a newly commercial theater. Urban, recently moneyed, and thoroughly engaged with their audiences, celebrated actresses were among the first women to achieve social mobility, cultural authority, and financial independence. In fact, Nussbaum contends, the eighteenth century might well be called the "age of the actress" in the British theater, given women's influence on the dramatic repertory and, through it, on the definition of femininity.Treating individual star actresses who helped spark a cult of celebrity€”especially Anne Oldfield, Susannah Cibber, Catherine Clive, Margaret Woffington, Frances Abington, and George Anne Bellamy€”Rival Queens reveals the way these women animated issues of national identity, property, patronage, and fashion in the c Пустая страница

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