The Culture of Playgoing in Shakespeare's England: A Collaborative DebateHow was the experience of watching a play influenced by practices beyond the walls of the playhouse, and what were the broader social and historical implications of the culture of playgoing? The book sets out to answer such questions. Interested first in what happened within the playhouse itself, the authors focus on the person of the actor, on stage props, visual pleasure and audience behaviour. At the same time, their discussion moves outward to consider a range of cultural assumptions and practices - such as eucharistic controversy, prostitution, social mobility, iconoclasm, Renaissance optics, the formation of national memory, and the dissemination of news. Since the two authors have very different perspectives on these issues, they have chosen a unique format: rather than submerging their opposition, they have highlighted it. Their attacks and counter-attacks, as they contest each other's views in paired chapters, result in a lively and illuminating debate. |
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Contents
Acknowledgments page ix | 1 |
The populuxe theatre | 38 |
Eye to eye opposed | 69 |
The distracted globe | 88 |
Magical properties III | 111 |
Props pleasure and idolatry | 131 |
The arithmetic of memory | 161 |
The house of fame | 182 |
Afterword | 208 |
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The Culture of Playgoing in Shakespeare's England: A Collaborative Debate Anthony B. Dawson,Paul Yachnin No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
able actor actual argue argument attention audience awareness becomes body calls Cambridge chapter character claim connection construction context course court critical cultural Dawson Desdemona desire discussion drama early modern effect Elizabethan engagement England English especially example experience eyes fact fashion gives Hamlet Henry historical idea images imagine important institutional John Jonson kind King language lines London look magic material means memory Middleton's objects Othello participation particular passion performance person physical play players playgoers playgoing playhouse pleasure political populuxe possessed presence produced Protestant provides question rank reading Reformation relation remember Renaissance representation represented response ritual says scene seems seen sense Shakespeare social spectacle spectators stage suggests tends theatre theatrical thing thinking Thomas trade transforming turn understanding University Press vision visual wonder Yachnin