Victorian classical burlesques
Subtitle: a critical anthology
By: Laura Monrós-Gaspar
Contributors: Blanchard, E. L. (Edward L.), 1820-1889; Talfourd, Francis, 1828-1862; Brough, Robert B. (Robert Barnabas), 1828-1860; Talfourd, Francis, 1828-1862
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2015
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781472537850; 9781472537867
Subjects: English drama (Comedy); Classical influences; History and criticism; Burlesque (Literature); Women in literature
Description: The Victorian classical burlesque was a popular theatrical genre of the mid-19th century. It parodied ancient tragedies with music, melodrama, pastiche, merciless satire and gender reversal. Immensely popular in its day, the genre was also intensely metatheatrical and carries significance for reception studies, the role and perception of women in Victorian society and the culture of artistic censorship. This anthology contains the annotated text of four major classical burlesques: Antigone Travestie (1845) by Edward L. Blanchard, Medea; or, the Best of Mothers with a Brute of a Husband (1856) by Robert Brough, Alcestis; the Original Strong-Minded Woman (1850) and Electra in a New Electric Light (1859) by Francis Talfourd. The cultural and textual annotations highlight the changes made to the scripts from the manuscripts sent to the Lord Chamberlain's office and, by explaining the topical allusions and satire, elucidate elements of the burlesques' popular cultural milieu. An in-depth critical introduction discusses the historical contexts of the plays' premieres and unveils the cultural processes behind the reception of the myths and original tragedies. As the burlesques combined spectacular effects with allusions to contemporary affairs, ambivalent and provocative attitudes to women, the plays represent an essential tool for reading the social history of the era
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Why classical burlesque?; title: Enacting the past and the present; title: The histories of Victorian classical burlesque; title: Texts and contexts; title: Note on the texts and this edition; title: List of representative nineteenth-century classical burlesques; title: Antigone : travestie / Edward L. Blanchard; title: Alcestis, the original strong-minded woman / Francis Talfourd; title: Medea; or, the best of mothers, with a brute of a husband / Robert Brough; title: Electra in a new electric light / Francis Talfourd.