Theatre of the Book 1480-1880 Print, Text and Performance in Europe

by Peters, Julie Stone

• ISBN13: 9780198187141
• ISBN10: 0198187149
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Theatre of the Book is an account of the entangled histories of print and the theatre in Europe between the Renaissance and the late nineteenth century: a history of European dramatic publication (providing comparative and historical perspective to the growing field of textual studies); anexamination of the creation of the modern notion of text and performance; and a comparative genealogy of ideas about theatrical and textual reception. It shows that, far from being marginal to Renaissance dramatists, the printing press had an essential role to play in the birth of the moderntheatre, crucially shaping the normative conception of 'theatre' as a distinct aesthetic medium and of drama as a distinct narrative form, helping to forge a theatricalist aesthetics in opposition to 'the book'. Treating playtexts, engravings, actor portraits, notation systems, and theatricalephemera at once as material objects and expressions of complex cultural formations, Theatre of the Book examines the European theatre's continual refashioning of itself in the world of print.

Author Biography

Julie Stone Peters is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, New York.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Introduction	1	(10)
Note on Editions, Spellings, Translations, and Citations	11	(4)
PRINTING THE DRAMA
Experimenting on the Page, 1480-1630	15	(26)
Drama as Institution, 1630-1760	41	(25)
Illustrations, Promptbooks, Stage Texts, 1760-1880	66	(27)
THEATRE IMPRIMATUR
Reinventing ``Theatre'' via the Printing Press	93	(20)
Critical Law, Theatrical Licence	113	(16)
Accurate Texts, Authoritative Editions	129	(18)
THE SENSES OF MEDIA
The Sense of the Senses: Sound, Gesture, and the Body on Stage	147	(19)
Narrative Form and Theatrical Illusions	166	(15)
Framing Space: Time, Perspective, and Motion in the Image	181	(22)
THE COMMERCE OF LETTERS
Dramatists, Poets, and Other Scribblers	203	(16)
Who Owns the Play? Pirate, Plagiarist, Imitator, Thief	219	(18)
Making it Public	237	(20)
THEATRICAL IMPRESSIONS
Scenic Pictures	257	(19)
Actor/Author	276	(18)
A Theatre Too Much With Us	294	(14)
Epilogue	308	(5)
Notes	313	(131)
Works Cited	444	(43)
Index	487