THEATRE OF THE BOOK 1480-1880 by Julie Stone Peters ( 9780199262168 )

Item Details

Title:

THEATRE OF THE BOOK 1480-1880
PRINT, TEXT, AND PERFORMANCE IN EUROPE

By:

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£60.00
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for further information.

ISBN 10:

0199262160

ISBN 13:

9780199262168

Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

6 March, 2003

Pages:

508

Description:

Theatre of the Book explores the impact of printing on the European theatre, 1480-1880. Far from being marginal to Renaissance dramatists, the printing press played an essential role in the birth of the modern theatre. Looking at playtexts, engravings, actor portraits, notation systems, and theatrical ephemera as part of the broader history of theatrical ideas, this illustrated book offers both a history of European dramatic publication and an examination ofthe European theatre's continual refashioning of itself in the world of print.

Synopsis:

Theatre of the Book is an account of the entangled histories of print and the theatre in Europe between the Renaissance and the late nineteenth century: a history of European dramatic publication (providing comparative and historical perspective to the growing field of textual studies); an examination of the creation of the modern notion of text and performance; and a comparative genealogy of ideas about theatrical and textual reception. It shows that, far from being marginal to Renaissance dramatists, the printing press had an essential role to play in the birth of the modern theatre, crucially shaping the normative conception of 'theatre' as a distinct aesthetic medium and of drama as a distinct narrative form, helping to forge a theatricalist aesthetics in opposition to 'the book'. Treating playtexts, engravings, actor portraits, notation systems, and theatrical ephemera at once as material objects and expressions of complex cultural formations, Theatre of the Book examines the European theatre's continual refashioning of itself in the world of print.

Illustrations:

numerous halftones

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press

Prizes:

Winner of The American Comparative Literature Association's Harry Levin

Returns:

Non-returnable

Some other items by this author:

CONGREVE, THE DRAMA, AND THE PRINTED WORD (HB)

STAGING WITCHCRAFT BEFORE THE LAW