Why does historical memory exclude nineteenth-century women playwrights when hundreds worked prolifically across the spectrum of professional theatre, amateur theatricals, and publishing? What might it mean to adjust the collective focus of cultural historians and literary critics so that these women can come into view? This collection of essays, written by a team of leading scholars in the field, undertakes not simply to recover the names and careers of women playwrights but to call into question the whole idea of what a playwright is, and what she does, and why it matters. Gender inquiry is the start: destabilising the category of playwrights loosens the borders of theatre history, making it possible to reconceptualize theatre and drama not as a product of culture but as social processes dynamically interacting with culture.

This collection of essays recovers the names and careers of nineteenth-century women playwrights.
Reviews
'This collection ... fulfils its promises to the reader, not only by contributing a substantial body of knowledge and criticism on the topic of the title but by raising many general theoretical issues that future scholars will ignore at their peril.' Brett Ashley Crawford, Theatre Research International



Book Information
ISBN 9780521659826
Author Tracy C. Davis
Format Paperback
Page Count 312
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 460g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 18mm