BUCH
(En-)Gendering a Popular Theatrical Genre
The Roles of Women in Nineteenth-Century British Melodrama
Anglistische Forschungen, Bd. 443
2014
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Abstract
Situated on the borderline between literary and cultural studies, this work is based on the analysis of more than 500 nineteenth-century British dramas (many of them only available as manuscripts). The main focus is on the genre of melodrama, with other dramatic forms used as a comparative background. The study draws on cultural studies models of the popular, on gender and role theory as well as reception studies to examine the representations of women constructed by the plays, thereby transcending many of the standard generalisations about femininity in melodrama and in the Victorian Age in general. The female roles in the plays are understood as offering positions for identification to the spectators, having to negotiate between social conventions and taboos on the one hand and the Audience's wishes on the other. Thus, melodrama, which was patronised by wide sections of society, can allow the twenty-first-century researcher an insight into the popular imagination of a past century.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
| Zwischenüberschrift | Seite | Aktion | Preis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inhalt | 5 | ||
| Acknowledgements | 7 | ||
| 1 Women and melodrama. Representation and response | 9 | ||
| 2 The dominant femininity concept up to 1860 | 27 | ||
| 3 The theatrical genre system up to 1860 | 43 | ||
| 4 The genre characteristics of pre-1860 melodrama | 55 | ||
| 5 The heroine as an ideal victim | 75 | ||
| 5.1 The basic pattern: Victimised by the villain’s desires | 77 | ||
| 5.2 Two variations: Unfounded criminal suspicion and marital suffering | 94 | ||
| 6 The active heroine | 103 | ||
| 6.1 Counteracting the villain’s desires | 105 | ||
| 6.2 The female saviour | 120 | ||
| 7 The sexualised heroine | 151 | ||
| 7.1 Chastity under suspicion | 160 | ||
| 7.2 Love and marriage without patriarchal sanction | 164 | ||
| 7.2.1 Unsanctioned relationships | 165 | ||
| 7.2.2 Elopements | 168 | ||
| 7.2.3 Marriages without patriarchal consent | 174 | ||
| 7.3 Sexual intercourse without marriage | 178 | ||
| 7.4 Marital infidelity | 188 | ||
| 8 The villainess | 201 | ||
| 9 The interaction between the basic female roles and their joint cultural significance | 229 | ||
| 10 Gender and genre struggles after 1860 | 237 | ||
| 11 Changes in the four key roles after 1860 | 253 | ||
| 11.1 The adulteress and other sexualised heroines | 257 | ||
| 11.2 The adventuress | 275 | ||
| 11.3 Chaste heroines | 289 | ||
| 12 Taking ‘female’ melodrama beyond the stage: Some comparative thoughts on ‘popular’ genres after 1900 | 301 | ||
| Abbreviations | 311 | ||
| Bibliography | 313 |
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