A social history of British performance cultures 1900-39 : citizenship, surveillance and the body / Maggie B. Gale.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gale, Maggie B. (Maggie Barbara), 1963- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater and society--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Theater and society.

Theater--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Theater.

History.

Great Britain.

Popular culture--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 244 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.

Summary:

"This book provides a new social history of British performance cultures in the early decades of the twentieth century, where performance across stage and screen was generated by dynamic and transformational industries. Exploring an era book-ended by wars and troubled by social unrest and political uncertainty, A Social History of British Performance Cultures 1900-39 makes use of the popular material cultures produced by and for the industries - autobiographies, fan magazines and trade journals, as well as archival holdings, popular sketches, plays and performances. Maggie B. Gale looks at how the performance industries operated, circulated their products and self-regulated their professional activities, in a period where enfranchisement, democratization, technological development and legislation shaped the experience of citizenship. Through close examination of material evidence and a theoretical underpinning, this book shows how performance industries reflected and challenged this experience, and explored the ways in which we construct our 'performance' as participants in the public realm. Suited not only to scholars and students of British theatre and theatre history, but to general readers as well, A Social History of British Performance Cultures 1900-39 offers an original intervention into the construction of British theatre and performance histories, offering new readings of the relationship between the material cultures of performance, the social, professional and civic contexts from which they arise, and on which they reflect"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : a social history of British performance cultures 1900-1939 : citizenship, surveillance and the body

Performance cultures and the expansion, operation and circulation of the performance industries

Legislating citizenship : regulating publics, regulating performance

Strangers and cultural transgressors on stage and screen : representing the outsider, the foreigner and the poor

Performing espionage : surveillance, the uncanny and theatrical spies

Performing conflict : beyond the first world war

Corporeality and the body in performance : agency and degeneration.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Gale, Maggie B. (Maggie Barbara), 1963- Social history of British performance cultures 1900-39.

ISBN:

9781138304376

1138304379

9781138304383

1138304387

OCLC:

1111784856