Performance and Femininity in Eighteenth-Century German Women's Writing: The Impossible Act (Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History) - Softcover

Arons, W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1349534528 ISBN 13: 9781349534524

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006

Synopsis

In this book, Wendy Arons examines how women writers used theater and performance to investigate the problem of female subjectivity and to intervene in the dominant discourse about ideal femininity. Arons shows how contemporary demands for sincerity and authenticity placed a peculiar burden on women in the public sphere, especially on actresses, who - like professional writers - overstepped the boundaries of what was considered proper behavior for women.  Paradoxically, in their representations of ideal women engaged in performance, these writers expose ideal femininity as an impossible act, even as they attempt to perform it in their writing and in their lives.

About this title

About the Author

Wendy Arons is Associate Professor of Dramatic Literature & Dramaturgy and Director of the 'Performance and Ecology Public Art Initiative' at Carnegie Mellon University, USA.

From the Back Cover

"An important contribution to our understanding of eighteenth-century culture. Arons derives her critical framework from various discursive traditions and disciplinary areas, combining aspects of each in an original way that allows the reader to examine cultural conventions of women's writing in the eighteenth century--with a focus on Germany but applicable to England or France--from a new perspective. As a result, the conflicting negotiations of upholding gender norms and bourgeois aesthetic demands of 'authentic' representation via writing is revealed. The trope of women writing about the performance of virtue on the contemporary stage or at court provides an ideal vehicle for exploring these issues. This is a truly original book that is a pleasure to read."--Susan L. Cocalis, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1349534528
• ISBN 13: 9781349534524
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280