Culture Playgoing Shakespeare's Eng: A Collaborative Debate - Softcover

Dawson/Yachnin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521023637 ISBN 13: 9780521023634

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

How was the experience of watching a play influenced by practices beyond the walls of the playhouse, and what were the broader social and historical implications of the culture of playgoing? The book sets out to answer such questions. Interested first in what happened within the playhouse itself, the authors focus on the person of the actor, on stage props, visual pleasure and audience behaviour. At the same time, their discussion moves outward to consider a range of cultural assumptions and practices - such as eucharistic controversy, prostitution, social mobility, iconoclasm, Renaissance optics, the formation of national memory, and the dissemination of news. Since the two authors have very different perspectives on these issues, they have chosen a unique format: rather than submerging their opposition, they have highlighted it. Their attacks and counter-attacks, as they contest each other's views in paired chapters, result in a lively and illuminating debate.

About this title

About the Authors

Anthony B. Dawson is Professor of English at the University of British Columbia.

Paul Yachnin is Professor of English at the University of British Columbia.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521023637
• ISBN 13: 9780521023634
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228