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Through the exploration of key female figures of the British stage in the long eighteenth century, this course will offer an interrogation of the ideologies of femininity, agency, performance, and maternity in eighteenth-century culture, while establishing the crucial roles women played in crafting the art and identity of all aspects of the theatre of the time.
The focus of the course will not be only on actresses, though they were the most visible women of the stage, and remain fascinating to scholars and the public alike, even today: see, for instance, the 2011 National Portrait Gallery exhibition "The First Actresses: Nell Gwynn to Sarah Siddons". Women were also present in the theatre from the Restoration as playwrights, with figures such as Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood and Joanna Baillie. Women spectators, critics, and even censors will also be brought to the fore as constitutive elements of the eighteenth-century stage. Lastly, several female characters, will be studied, because of the discourse they embodied, the professional significance they carried or the cultural moment they created.
What did it entail for performers to speak words written by a woman? How did audiences react to the apparition of feminine bodies on stage? How was gender constantly played with and renegotiated on stage? What professional status and agency did women have over their work as performers, dramatists or managers? How were female audiences taken into account? Could women be deemed artists through their dramatic work? These questions, and many more, will be raised throughout the duration of the course.
The study of theatrical performance can only be done through an interdisciplinary approach, and this course will seek to replicate such an approach, by placing itself at the crossroads of art, literature, work history, dress history, cultural studies, and reception theory. Of course, this is compounded here by a reliance on gender studies. This multifaceted approach goes hand in hand with the study of a varied array of primary material, from plays to letters, from satirical prints to portraits exhibited at the Royal Academy, from press reviews and advertisements to diaries and memoirs. |
