Clare McManus – författare

The last two decades have transformed the field of Renaissance studies, and Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader maps this difficult terrain. Attending to the breadth of fresh approaches, the volume offers a theoretical overview of current thinking about the period. Collecting in one volume the classic and cutting-edge statements which define early modern scholarship as it is now practised, this book is a one-stop indispensable resource for undergraduates and beginning postgraduates alike. Through a rich array of arguments by the world's leading experts, the Renaissance emerges wonderfully invigorated, while the suggestive shorter extracts, topical questions and engaged editorial introductions give students the wherewithal and encouragement to do some reconceiving themselves.

This work reassesses women's relationship to performance in early modern England. It investigates the staging conditions, practices and gendering of Anna of Denmark's performances, bringing current critical theorisations of race, class, gender, space and performance to bear on the female courtly body in dance, staging, scenery, costume and make-up in the Jacobean court. The study establishes a tradition of early seventeenth-century female performance which constitutes a trajectory for the emergence of the professional Restoration female actor. Anna of Denmark, wife of James VI of Scotland/James I, was a great patron of Ben Johnson, among others.

Did the Stuart queens create their own courts, and can these courts shed new light on women's poetry, drama and performance? Unearthing the neglected history of the Stuart queens, these essays look afresh at the early modern European female elite to create a new picture of femininity for students and scholars of early modern culture.

Did the Stuart queens create their own courts, and can these courts shed new light on women's poetry, drama and performance? This book investigates the literature, theatre, patronage and commissioning of the courts of Anna of Denmark (1603-19) and Henrietta Maria (1625-42). Unearthing the history of the Stuart queens, these essays look afresh at the early modern European female elite to create a new picture of femininity for students and scholars of early modern culture.

The Island Princess is a tragicomic romance set in the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Fletcher rewrites Shakespeare's The Tempest through the encounter of Islam and Christianity and the fierce European competition for wealth at the farthest reaches of empire. The play also stages the degeneration of religious tolerance into fanaticism. This ground-breaking edition explores the play in its gendered, political, social and religious contexts whilst also finding its resonances for a twenty-first century audience. The critical introduction and on-page commentary notes create an ideal teaching text giving a comprehensive account of the play from both literary and performance perspectives.