Title: The Orient on the Victorian stage /
Authors: Ziter, Edward.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press,
Year: 2003
Subjects: Theater Great Britain History; English drama History and criticism; Orientalism in literature.; Orient In literature.
Abstract: "The Orient on the Victorian Stage examines the representation of the Middle East in a variety of nineteenth-century entertainment forms, such as panoramas, melodrama, pantomime, ballet, and opera. Ziter argues that changes in stage craft reflected the emerging idea that the significance of objects was evident in contextual relations, and he relates the development of this stage craft to orientalist exhibitions and museum displays. Unlike other theatre histories and studies of orientalism, this book examines broader strategies of spatial representation and focuses on performance and popular culture. Ziter explores the plays, productions, and displays at a number of venues, including Drury Lane, Covent Garden, the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, and the British Museum, among others. The book also includes an analysis of Byron's image in the theatre and an analysis of his play Sardanapalus."--Jacket.
Contents: "Real sets," geography, and race -- Spectacle and surveillance in orientalist panoramas -- Fantasies of miscengenation on the romantic stage -- The built-out East of popular ethnography -- The biblical East in theatres and exhibitions -- The geography of imperial theatre.