This book charts the broad cultural impact of the medieval and early modern female performer: how she engages with her historical origins in classical drama, works within contemporary cultural and professional networks, and sets the terms for female performance in subsequent historical periods. Moving beyond the archival evidence that establishes that medieval and early modern women and girls performed, it explores how their performances resonated across national boundaries and historical periods, revealing wide patterns of influence and inspiration. This collection of original essays brings together well-established authorities with new and emerging scholars, offering innovative and ground-breaking discussions of medieval dramatic cultures, the Shakespearean stage, professional actresses in Spain and Italy, the performance of music and dance, artistic representations of the female performer, and twentieth- and twenty-first-century adaptations. Ranging from tenth-century Germany to twenty-first-century London, the chapters in this volume offer a new set of paradigms for understanding and interpreting women and girls on stage.

About the Author
Deanne Williams is Professor of English and Theater Studies at York University. She is the author of The French Fetish from Chaucer to Shakespeare (Cambridge, 2004), Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood (Palgrave, 2014), and Girl Culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Bloomsbury, 2023).


Book Information
ISBN 9789048562558
Author Deanne Williams
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint Amsterdam University Press
Publisher Amsterdam University Press