Women, Nationalism, and the Romantic Stage: Theatre and Politics in Britain, 1780-1800

by Betsy Bolton

Overview

In the 1780s and 90s, theater critics described the stage as a state in political tumult, while politicians invoked theater as a model for politics both good and bad. In this study, Betsy Bolton examines the ways Romantic women performers and playwrights used theatrical conventions to intervene in politics. This well illustrated study draws on canonical poetry and personal memoirs, popular drama and parliamentary debates, political caricatures and theatrical reviews to extend current understandings of Romantic theater, the public sphere, and Romantic gender relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521771160
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/19/2001
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Romanticism , #46
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Betsy Bolton is Associate Professor of English at Swarthmore College.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Prologue: the female dramatist and the man of the people; Part I. Staging the Nation: 1. The politics of Romantic theatre; Part II. Romancing the State: Public Men and Public Women: 2. Varieties of Romance Nationalism; 3. Patriotic romance: Emma Hamilton and Horation Nelson; 4. (Dis)embodied romance: 'Perdita' Robinson and William Wordsworth; Part III. Mixed Drama, Imperial Farce: 5. Mimicry, politics and playwrighting; 6. The balance of power: Hannah Cowley's Day in Turkey; 7. The farce of subjection: Elizabeth Inchbald; Epilogue: what is she?; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This is, perhaps, Bolton's most significant contribution to our understanding of how theater as an enacted medium...held such power in this period." Nineteenth Century Studies

"Entertaining as well as admirably researched; the readings are illuminating, and Bolton delivers an important reminder of the continuing power of the stage in the Romantic era." ASECS Book Reviews Online

"Women, Nationalism, and the Romantic Stage is to be admired for the originality of its contents and the value of its method..well written and clearly organized...While it offers illuminating readings and careful scholarship to be apreciated for their own ends, it is also a book that invites further thinking about larger issues, including definitions of nationalism and the nature of women's political and literary authority within Romanticism." The Wordsworth Circle

From the Publisher