Theatre of the Book, 1480-1880: Print, Text, and Performance in EuropeOxford University Press, 2000 M11 9 - 494 pages 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); an examination 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 modern theatre, 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 theatrical ephemera 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. |
From inside the book
Results 6-10 of 85
Page 15
... readers or actors), indicating no more than the order of appearances, general stage directions, and first lines of speeches and songs.3 As theatrical activity increased along with leisure-time reading, as both printers and scriptoria ...
... readers or actors), indicating no more than the order of appearances, general stage directions, and first lines of speeches and songs.3 As theatrical activity increased along with leisure-time reading, as both printers and scriptoria ...
Page 16
... reading. They might be used by the kinds of performers Shakespeare imagines in A Midsummer Night's Dream—enthusiastic amateurs—or by travelling troupes without “house” dramatists. But they were also intended for readers: those looking ...
... reading. They might be used by the kinds of performers Shakespeare imagines in A Midsummer Night's Dream—enthusiastic amateurs—or by travelling troupes without “house” dramatists. But they were also intended for readers: those looking ...
Page 17
... readers and connoisseurs of picture books, as the woodcuts, table of contents, and elegant layout show (Fig. ). The ... reading. Words are often broken randomly to fit visual-spatial designs, for instance in the many funnel-shaped ...
... readers and connoisseurs of picture books, as the woodcuts, table of contents, and elegant layout show (Fig. ). The ... reading. Words are often broken randomly to fit visual-spatial designs, for instance in the many funnel-shaped ...
Page 19
... reader could move around in the text: “Indexing table of the first volume of the Actes of the Apostles, for finding ... reading public. The small octavo of Fernando de Rojas' Celestina printed in Venice in explains that it has ...
... reader could move around in the text: “Indexing table of the first volume of the Actes of the Apostles, for finding ... reading public. The small octavo of Fernando de Rojas' Celestina printed in Venice in explains that it has ...
Page 21
... readers, it was not initially geared towards readers accustomed to seeing staged plays. Late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century drama could be conceptually indistinguishable from other genres (often meant equally for reading or. F ...
... readers, it was not initially geared towards readers accustomed to seeing staged plays. Late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century drama could be conceptually indistinguishable from other genres (often meant equally for reading or. F ...
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
13 | |
THEATRE IMPRIMATUR | 91 |
THE SENSES OF MEDIA | 145 |
THE COMMERCE OF LETTERS | 201 |
THEATRICAL IMPRESSIONS | 255 |
Epilogue | 308 |
Notes | 313 |
Works Cited | 444 |
Index | 487 |
Other editions - View all
Theatre of the Book, 1480-1880: Print, Text, and Performance in Europe Julie Stone Peters Limited preview - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
acting action actors aesthetic attempt Beaumont and Fletcher become beginning body century Chapter characters claims classical collection Comedies Complete continued contract copies Corneille corrected create critics culture dedication describes directions discussion distinction drama dramatic dramatists early edition eighteenth English explains expression fact figures French gesture give hand identified illustrations imagination imitation important instance Italy John Jonson kind language late later learned letters Library literary living managers manuscript means narrative nature notes offer once original performance period Plautus plays playwrights poem poet poetic poetry preface printed printers production published readers reading reflected Renaissance represented scene scenic seemed seen senses seventeenth Shakespeare similarly space spectators speech stage theatre theatrical things Thomas tion tragedy trans translation various voice writes written