Dramatic geography : romance, intertheatricality, and cultural encounter in early modern Mediterranean drama / Laurence Publicover.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Publicover, Laurence, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Series:

Early modern literary geographies

Early Modern Literary Geographies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600--History and criticism.

English drama.

Geography in literature.

Culture in literature.

Mediterranean Region--In literature.

Mediterranean Region.

English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan.

Literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

ix, 204 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2017.

Summary:

Focusing on early modern plays which stage encounters between peoples of different cultures, this book asks how a sense of geographical location was created in early modern theatres that featured minimal scenery. While previous studies have stressed these plays' connections to a historical Mediterranean in which England was increasingly involved, this volume demonstrates how their dramatic geography was shaped through a literary and theatrical heritage. Reading canonical plays including The Merchant of Venice, The Jew of Malta, and The Tempest alongside lesser-known dramas such as Soliman and Perseda, Guy of Warwick, and The Travels of the Three English Brothers, Dramatic Geography illustrates how early modern dramatists staging foreign worlds drew upon a romance tradition dating back to the medieval period, and how they responded to one another's plays to create an 'intertheatrical geography'. These strategies shape the plays' wider meanings in important ways, and could only have operated within the theatrical environment peculiar to early modern London: one in which playwrights worked in close proximity, in one instance perhaps even living together while composing Mediterranean dramas, and one where they could expect audiences to respond to subtle generic and intertextual negotiations. In reassessing this group of plays, Laurence Publicover brings into conversation scholarship on theatre history, cultural encounter, and literary geography; the book also contributes to current debates in early modern studies regarding the nature of dramatic authorship, the relationship between genre and history, and the continuities that run between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries -- Provided by the publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: An uninhabited island?

I. Geograpy and romance

Romancing the Mediterranean

Staging romance

II. Intertheatrical geography

This Carthage, Sirs, was Venice: what is intertheatrical geography?

Turks and tournaments: Kyd's Soliman and Perseda

Satirizing Kyd's Mediterranean: Marlowe's The Jew of Malta

Re-enchanting the Mediterranean: Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

Re-thinking romance: Heywood's The Fair Maid of the Wesgt, Part One

Intertheatricality and propaganda: THe Travels of the Three English Brothers.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-195) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780198806813

0198806817

OCLC:

983824650