Acting in the night : Macbeth and the places of the Civil War / Alexander Nemerov.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nemerov, Alexander.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Macbeth.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Stage history--United States.

Theater and society--Washington (D.C.)--History--19th century.

Theater and society.

Theater--Washington (D.C.)--History--19th century.

Theater.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Theater and the war.

United States.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Social aspects.

Washington (D.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Social aspects.

Washington (D.C.).

Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Social aspects.

Virginia.

Washington (D.C.)--Social conditions--19th century.

Virginia--Social conditions--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (313 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What can the performance of a single play on one specific night tell us about the world this event inhabited so briefly? Alexander Nemerov takes a performance of Macbeth in Washington, DC on October 17, 1863-with Abraham Lincoln in attendance-to explore this question and illuminate American art, politics, technology, and life as it was being lived. Nemerov's inspiration is Wallace Stevens and his poem "Anecdote of the Jar," in which a single object organizes the wilderness around it in the consciousness of the poet. For Nemerov, that evening's performance of Macbeth reached across the tragedy of civil war to acknowledge the horrors and emptiness of a world it tried and ultimately failed to change.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: A Drop That Dyes the Seas

1. A Stone's Throw: Charlotte Cushman

2. The Flame of Place: Abraham Lincoln

3. The Glass Case: Interior Life in Washington, D.C.

4. Acoustic Shadows: The Battle of Bristoe Station

5. Center of Echoes: Castle Murray, Fauquier County, Virginia

6. Ghosts: The Death of Colonel Thomas Ru‹n, October 17, 1863

7. Sound and Fury: Nature in Virginia

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Illustrations

Index

Notes:

"Ahmanson-Murphy fine arts imprint."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613277282

9781283277280

128327728X

9780520947443

0520947444

OCLC:

703138057