Eighteenth-Century Brechtians

Theatrical Satire in the Age of Walpole
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-0-85989-335-0
Verlag: University of Exeter Press

Buch, Englisch, 290 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 445 g

Reihe: Exeter Performance Studies

Discussing the actor mutiny of 1733, theatre censorship, controversial plays and Fielding’s forgery of an actor’s biography, the book contends that some subversive Augustan and Georgian artists were early Brechtians. Reconstructions of lost episodes in theatre history include a recounting of Fielding’s last days as a stage satirist before his Little Haymarket theatre was closed, Charlotte Charke’s performances as Macheath and Polly Peachum in The Beggar’s Opera and the 1740 staging of Jonathan Swift’s Polite Conversation on a double bill with Shakespeare’s Merry Wives.


Some documents in this collection offer another perspective on theatre history by employing fiction – speculative reconstructions of Georgian theatre events for which historical facts are scarce or missing.  Brecht also employed fiction to reconsider history in short stories he wrote about Lucullus and Socrates, and a novel about Julius Caesar.  The stories and several new letters attributed to Fielding delve into theatre history and keep some of its controversy alive in new ways, historicizing fiction and theatre somewhat as Brecht did.


It offers an unconventional, new reading of theatre history, Brecht’s tradition and stage satire.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Schechter, Joel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturtheorie: Poetik und Literaturästhetik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Dramen und Dramatiker
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

The Cast of Brechtians in Order of Appearance


List of Illustrations


Foreword by Peter Thomson


Introduction


Eighteenth-Century Brechtians


Cross-Dressing Soldiers and Anti-Militarist Rakes


Polly Peachum and the New Naiveté


Pirates and Polly: A Lost Messingkauf Dialogue


The Duchess of Queensberry Becomes Polly Peachum


Macheath Our Contemporary


Swift in Hollywood: Another Messingkauf Dialogue


Swift’s Polite Conversation with Falstaff


Henry Fielding, Brechtian Before Brecht


Fielding’s London Merchant, and Lillo’s


Literarization of Fielding’s Plays


Tom Thumb Jones, Child Actress


A World on Fire


Fielding’s Cibber Letters: Counterfeit Wit, Scurrility and Cartels


Bertolt Brecht Writes The Beggar’s Opera, Fielding Rewrites Polly


Stage Mutineers


Charlotte Charke’s Tit for Tat; or Comedy and Tragedy at War: A Lost Play Recovered?


Mrs Charke Escapes Hanging


Garrick and Swift’s School for Scandal—With a Digression on Yoko Ono


Brecht Praises Garrick’s Hamlet


A Portrait of the Artists as Beggar’s Opera Disciples—Including David Garrick, Epic Actor


Walpole in America


The Future of Eighteenth-Century Brechtiana: Polly Exonerated


Conclusion: The Future Promise of an Earlier Age


Eighteenth-Century Brechtians: A Timetable of Events


Bibliography


Index

Über Autor(innen)

Schechter, Joel
Joel Schechter is Professor of Theatre Arts at San Francisco State University. He is famous as a writer about clowns, jesters, satirists and their radical politics. Much of his work has been focused on contemporary global mayhem. He was previously Professor of Dramatic Literature at Yale School of Drama, lecturer in Performance Studies at New York University and the New School for Social Research. He was Editor in Chief of the Yale journal Theater from 1977-92.

Joel Schechter is Professor of Theatre Arts at San Francisco State University.  He is famous as a writer about clowns, jesters, satirists and their radical politics.  Much of his work has been focused on contemporary global mayhem. He was previously Professor of Dramatic Literature at Yale School of Drama, lecturer in Performance Studies at New York University and the New School for Social Research. He was Editor in Chief of the Yale journal Theater from 1977-92.