Description
Book SynopsisThis book redefines the plays and theatrical culture of the years 1625 to 1642 as something more than simply post-Shakespearean in character. Scholars reveal the drama's mixture of political engagement, urbane cosmopolitanism, and commercial ingenuity. They urge us to recalibrate our histories to account for the innovations of the Caroline period.
Trade Review'This is a stimulating collection of essays on a period in dramatic history we know too little about. Each of the pieces here is driven by archival research that opens up new directions for inquiry. Because it challenges so much of what we assume about its subject, Localizing Caroline Drama will be indispensable for those interested in the early modern theater in England.' - Douglas Bruster, the University of Texas at Austin; author of Shakespeare and the Question of Culture
'I read this excellent collection with enormous pleasure. The editors have assembled a nice balance of contributors, representing a range of approaches, and the volume is filled with fascinating, fresh information and interpretations. Mining the neglected riches of Caroline drama, the contributors show us why we should return to these plays, seek out those we've never read, and scrap our tired generalizations about the period and its drama. The collection will inspire readers to teach these plays and to include them in their own research projects.' - Frances E. Dolan, the University of California, Davis
Localizing Caroline Drama offers a genuinely interdisciplinary cultural history, providing not a single grand overarching reading that treats the Caroline period simply as the harbinger of catastrophe but a set of consciously local- that is, focused and engaged rather than simply topical- analyses which refuse to be reduced solely to their points of identity yet which together form a volume that is more a multiply-authored monograph than a collection of essays. This timely and groundbreaking book locates Caroline theatrical culture in a range of places and contexts never before given their due: from Dublin to Tunis, from printshop to dancing manual, from commerce to crusade. 'Decadent' no more, Caroline drama emerges as a series of vibrant interventions in contemporary culture - aesthetic, political, sexual, economic, theological - far outstripping the limitations of the 'pre-revolutionary.' ' - Gordon McMullan, Reader in English, King's College London
Table of ContentsForeword; R. Malcolm Smuts Introduction; A. Zucker and A. B. Farmer Canons and Classics: Publishing Drama in Caroline England; A. B. Farmer and Z. Lesser Politics and Aesthetic Pleasure in 1630s Theater; K. E. McLuskie Reading Triumphs: Localizing Caroline Masques; L. Shohet Exeunt Fighting: Poets, Players, and Impresarios at the Caroline Hall Theaters; M. Butler The St. Werburgh Street Theater, Dublin; R. Dutton A Beast So Blurred: The Monstrous Favorite in Caroline Drama; M. DiGangi Dancing Masters and the Production of Cosmopolitan Bodies in Caroline Town Comedy; J. E. Howard The 'Turks', Caroline Politics, and Philip Massinger's The Renegado; B. S. Robinson
