Victorian Classical Burlesques: A Critical Anthology (Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception) - Softcover

Monros-Gaspar, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472537866 ISBN 13: 9781472537867

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015

Synopsis

The Victorian classical burlesque was a popular theatrical genre of the mid-19th century. It parodied ancient tragedies with music, melodrama, pastiche, merciless satire and gender reversal. Immensely popular in its day, the genre was also intensely metatheatrical and carries significance for reception studies, the role and perception of women in Victorian society and the culture of artistic censorship.

This anthology contains the annotated text of four major classical burlesques: Antigone Travestie (1845) by Edward L. Blanchard, Medea; or, the Best of Mothers with a Brute of a Husband (1856) by Robert Brough, Alcestis; the Original Strong-Minded Woman (1850) and Electra in a New Electric Light (1859) by Francis Talfourd. The cultural and textual annotations highlight the changes made to the scripts from the manuscripts sent to the Lord Chamberlain's office and, by explaining the topical allusions and satire, elucidate elements of the burlesques' popular cultural milieu.

An in-depth critical introduction discusses the historical contexts of the plays' premieres and unveils the cultural processes behind the reception of the myths and original tragedies. As the burlesques combined spectacular effects with allusions to contemporary affairs, ambivalent and provocative attitudes to women, the plays represent an essential tool for reading the social history of the era.

About this title

Book Description:

An annotated critical anthology of four major classical burlesques, exploring the popular, iconic and literary refigurations of classical myths on the Victorian popular stage.

About the Author:

Laura Monrós-Gaspar is lecturer at the University of Valencia, Spain. Her publications include Cassandra the Fortune-Teller: Prophets, Gipsies and Victorian Burlesque (2011), Casandra de Florence Nightingale (2011), Nineteenth-century Literature: A Reader (2012) and Persiguiendo a Safo: escritoras victorianas y mitología clásica (2012).

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1472537866
• ISBN 13: 9781472537867
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312