DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Actresses on the Victorian Stage

Feminine Performance and the Galatea Myth

Gail Marshall author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:2nd Nov '06

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Actresses on the Victorian Stage cover

This book examines the figure of the Victorian actress in the context of the cult of Classical sculpture.

This book examines actresses on the English stage of the later nineteenth century, and reveals that much of their work is determined by the popularity at the time of images of Classical sculpture. The book looks at many neglected plays and draws on theatrical fictions and visual representations, as well as theatrical productions.Gail Marshall argues that the professional and personal history of the Victorian actress was largely defined by her negotiation with the sculptural metaphor, and that this was authorized and determined by the Ovidian myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. Drawing on evidence of theatrical fictions, visual representations and popular culture's assimilation of the sculptural image, as well as theatrical productions, she examines some of the manifestations of the sculptural metaphor on the legitimate English stage, and its implications for the actress in the later nineteenth century. Within the legitimate theatre, the 'Galatea-aesthetic' positioned actresses as predominantly visual and sexual commodities whose opportunities for interpretative engagement with their plays were minimal. This dominant aesthetic was effectively challenged only at the end of the century, with the advent of the 'New' drama, and the emergence of a body of autobiographical writings by actresses.

"Valuable footnotes; essential illustrations....General readers, graduate students, researchers, and professionals will be grateful." Choice

ISBN: 9780521027465

Dimensions: 228mm x 152mm x 16mm

Weight: 389g

252 pages