Liberal Lives and Activist Repertoires

Political Performance and Victorian Social Reform

Inbunden, Engelska, 2023

465 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar. Fri frakt över 249 kr.

Beskrivning

This ambitious study traces the strategies of human rights activists to show how world-changing reform movements were shaped by women and men from modest backgrounds who were deeply attuned to the power of performance. Tracy C. Davis explores nineteenth-century reform campaigns through the pioneering work of a family of activists - prominent anti-slavery lecturer George Thompson, his daughter Amelia (the first female theatre and music critic for a British daily newspaper) and her husband, the political organizer Frederick Chesson. Engaging in some of the most important social struggles of the late Georgian and Victorian periods - including abolition, enfranchisement, and anti-genocide - this book reveals how two generations' insights into performance consolidated into activist tactics that persist today. Characterised by a skilful deployment of performance theory alongside deep and wide-ranging historical knowledge, this ground-breaking work demonstrates what 'dramaturgy' can teach us about 'history'.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2023-06-01
Mått:161 x 237 x 25 mm
Vikt:680 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:352
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781009297530

Utforska kategorier

Socialhistoria och kulturhistoria inom Historia och arkeologi
Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur
Teater inom Kultur

Mer om författaren

Tracy C. Davis is Barber Professor of Performing Arts and Professor of English and Theatre at Northwestern University. She has published books on nineteenth-century theatre, the economics and business history of theatre, performance theory, and gender and theatre. Her latest book combines these interests in a study of two generations of Victorian activists.

Recensioner i media

'With her distinctive form of precision historiography, Tracy Davis has given us a vital and necessary addendum to the long history and ongoing project of abolitionism. Focusing primarily on the lives and work of three Victorians, Davis elaborates a theory of performance that situates seemingly minor forms of activism - hosting dinners and attending meetings, letter-writing campaigns, journalistic reportage, and speechifying - as fundamental to the cultivation of solidarity and to the momentum of political engagement. This is a wonderful book: meticulously researched, compellingly argued, and beautifully narrated.' Patrick Anderson, University of California, San Diego

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction: History as Performance History; 1. Forms and Increments of Performance; 2. Change Making: Incrementalism; 3. Bildung: Leveraging Critique to Propel the Precarious into Political Life; 4. Combative Pens; 5. Experiments in Becoming.