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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

Comments

This page displays the metadata for this volume. Only the front matter and table of contents are available for download. For more information or to buy the book, please follow the “Buy this book” link above.

Additional formats available:

E-book (PDF): 9781501513893

E-book (EPUB): 9781501513954

Citation for Published Book

Kimura, Asuka. Performing Widowhood on the Early Modern English Stage. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2023.

Performing Widowhood on the Early Modern English Stage

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