Carrying All before Her

Celebrity Pregnancy and the London Stage, 1689-1800

Chelsea Phillips (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

304 Seiten

2022
University of Delaware Press (Verlag)
978-1-64453-248-5 (ISBN)

Titel nicht im Sortiment

Artikel merken

Uses the reproductive histories of six celebrity women to demonstrate that pregnancy affected celebrity identity, impacted audience reception of performance, changed company repertory and altered company hierarchy, influenced the development of new plays, and had economic consequences for both women and the companies for which they worked.

The rise of celebrity stage actresses in the long eighteenth century created a class of women who worked in the public sphere while facing considerable scrutiny about their offstage lives. Such powerful celebrity women used the cultural and affective significance of their reproductive bodies to leverage audience support and interest to advance their careers, and eighteenth-century London patent theatres even capitalized on their pregnancies. Carrying All Before Her uses the reproductive histories of six celebrity women (Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen, Anne Oldfield, Susannah Cibber, George Anne Bellamy, Sarah Siddons, and Dorothy Jordan) to demonstrate that pregnancy affected celebrity identity, impacted audience reception and interpretation of performance, changed company repertory and altered company hierarchy, influenced the development and performance of new plays, and had substantial economic consequences for both women and the companies for which they worked. Deepening the fields of celebrity, theatre, and women's studies, as well as social and medical histories, Phillips reveals an untapped history whose relevance and impact persists today.

CHELSEA PHILLIPS is an associate professor of theatre at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Inheriting Greatness: Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen and Anne Oldfield
2 Pregnant Sensibility: Susannah Cibber and George Anne Bellamy
3 Conceiving Genius: Sarah Siddons
4 Prolific Muse: Dorothy Jordan
Conclusion: Celebrity Pregnancy, Then and Now
Appendix: Birth and Christening Dates
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	17.01.2022
Reihe/Serie	Performing Celebrity
Zusatzinfo	15 b-w images, 2 tables
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	4 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-64453-248-4 / 1644532484
ISBN-13	978-1-64453-248-5 / 9781644532485
Zustand	Neuware