Hunger, Appetite and the Politics of the Renaissance Stage - Hardcover

Williamson, Matt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1108832067 ISBN 13: 9781108832069

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2021

Synopsis

Hunger and appetite permeate Renaissance theatre, with servants, soldiers, courtiers and misers all defined with striking regularity through their relation to food. Demonstrating the profound ongoing relevance of Marxist literary theory, Hunger, Appetite and the Politics of the Renaissance Stage highlights the decisive role of these drives in the complex politics of early modern drama. Plenty and excess were thematically inseparable from scarcity and want for contemporary audiences, such that hunger and appetite together acquired a unique significance as both subject and medium of political debate. Focusing critical attention on the relationship between cultural texts and the material base of society, Matthew Williamson reveals the close connections between how these drives were represented and the underlying socioeconomic changes of the period. At the same time, he shows how hunger and appetite provided the theatres with a means of conceptualising these changes and interrogating the forces that motivated them.

About this title

About the Author

Matthew Williamson is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages at the University of Oslo.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108832067
• ISBN 13: 9781108832069
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244