Empire on the English Stage 16601714

"Contesting the current consensus that Restoration and early eighteenth-century drama referred almost exclusively to domestic social and political issues, Empire on the English Stage, 1660-1714 shows that the theatre was a crucial location for debates over England's contemporaneous colonial expansion. The book provides a comprehensive account of colonialism, national identity and the representation of race and ethnicity on stage. Joining current historical discussions of the development of British imperial ideology, Bridget Orr argues that dramatic texts and production provide a rich and unexamined archive in which the issues attendant on the emergence of the First Empire figure largely. Her account not only sheds new light on plays by Dryden, Orrery, Behn, Wycherley and Southerne but redirects attention to popular but now marginal texts by Settle, Sedley, Dennis and Charles Shadwell. Attention to the imperial themes of these dramatists decisively redraws the map of Restoration and early eighteenth-century drama."--Jacket.

First sentence: On October 18, 1666, John Evelyn approvingly recorded the adoption of a new fashion at the Carolean court: 18 to Lond: Star-Chamber: thence to Court, it being the first time of his Majesties putting himselfe solemnly into the Eastern fashion of Vest, changing doublet, stiff Collar, bands and Cloake etc: into a comely Vest, after the Persian mode with girdle or shash, and Shoe strings and Garters,

Year

2001

Language

English

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Editions

1

Pages

364

ISBN

9780521036009

Data source: Wikidata