Document Type
Monograph
Description
The deaths of husbands radically changed women's lives in the early modern period. While losing male protection, widows acquired rare opportunities for social and economic independence. Placed between death and life, female submissiveness and male audacity, chastity and sexual awareness, or tragedy and comedy, widows were highly problematic in early modern patriarchal society. They were also popular figures in the theater, arousing both male desire and anxiety. How did Shakespeare and his contemporaries represent them on the stage? What kind of costume, props, and gestures were employed? What influence did actors, spectators, and play-space have? This book offers a fresh and incisive examination of the theatrical representation of widows by discussing the material conditions of the early modern stage. It is also the only comprehensive study of this topic covering all three phases of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline drama.
Publication Date
1-30-2023
Publisher
Medieval Institute Publications
City
Kalamazoo
ISBN
9781501520204
Keywords
early modern, women, gender, performance, material culture
Disciplines
Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory | Medieval Studies
Citation for Published Book
Kimura, Asuka. Performing Widowhood on the Early Modern English Stage. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2023.
Comments
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Additional formats available:
E-book (PDF): 9781501513893
E-book (EPUB): 9781501513954