Professor Jacky Bratton's Books

From Archaeology to Spectacle in Victorian Britain

The Case of Assyria, 1845-1854

By: Professor Shawn Malley

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From Archaeology to Spectacle in Victorian Britain

The Case of Assyria, 1845-1854

By: Professor Shawn Malley

In his examination of the excavation of ancient Assyria by Austen Henry Layard, Shawn Malley reveals how, by whom, and for what reasons the stones of Assyria were deployed during a brief but remarkably intense period of archaeological activity in the mid-nineteenth century. His book encompasses the archaeological practices and representations that originated in Layard's excavations, radiated outward by way of the British Museum and Layard's best-selling Nineveh and Its Remains (1849), and were then dispersed into the public domain of popular amusements. That the stones of Assyria resonated in debates far beyond the interests of religious and scientific groups is apparent in the prevalence of poetry, exhibitions, plays, and dioramas inspired by the excavation. Of particular note, correspondence involving high-ranking diplomatic personnel and museum officials demonstrates that the 'treasures' brought home to fill the British Museum served not only as signs of symbolic conquest, but also as covert means for extending Britain's political and economic influence in the Near East. Malley takes up issues of class and influence to show how the middle-class Layard's celebrity status both advanced and threatened aristocratic values. Tellingly, the excavations prompted disturbing questions about the perils of imperial rule that framed discussions of the social and political conditions which brought England to the brink of revolution in 1848 and resurfaced with a vengeance during the Crimean crisis. In the provocative conclusion of this meticulously documented and suggestive book, Malley points toward the striking parallels between the history of Britain's imperial investment in Mesopotamia and the contemporary geopolitical uses and abuses of Assyrian antiquity in post-invasion Iraq.

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Page Count

220

Publisher

Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

140947917X

ISBN 13

9781409479178

Transgressive Theatricality, Romanticism, and Mary Wollstonecraft

By: Professor Lisa Plummer Crafton

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Transgressive Theatricality, Romanticism, and Mary Wollstonecraft

By: Professor Lisa Plummer Crafton

Throughout her works, Mary Wollstonecraft interrogates and represents the connected network of theater, culture, and self-representation, in what Lisa Plummer Crafton argues is a conscious appropriation of theater in its literal, cultural, and figurative dimensions. Situating Wollstonecraft within early Romantic debates about theatricality, she explores Wollstonecraft's appropriation of, immersion in, and contributions to these debates within the contexts of philosophical arguments about the utility of theater and spectacle; the political discourse of the French Revolution; juridical transcripts of treason and civil divorce trials; and the spectacle of the female actress in performance, as typified by Sarah Siddons and her compelling connections to Wollstonecraft on and off stage. As she considers Wollstonecraft's contributions to competing notions of the theatrical, from the writer's earliest literary reviews and translations through her histories, correspondence, nonfiction, and novels, Crafton traces the trajectory of Wollstonecraft's conscious appropriation of the trope and her emphasis on theatricality's transgressive potential for self-invention. Crafton's book, the first wide-ranging study of theatricality in the works of Wollstonecraft, is an important contribution to current reconsiderations of the earlier received wisdom about Romantic anti-theatricality, to historicist revisions of the performance and theory of Sarah Siddons, and to theories of spectacle and gender.

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Page Count

176

Publisher

Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409479056

ISBN 13

9781409479055

The Greatest Shows on Earth

World Theatre from Peter Brook to the Sydney Olympics

By: Professor of Psychology John Freeman

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The Greatest Shows on Earth

World Theatre from Peter Brook to the Sydney Olympics

By: Professor of Psychology John Freeman

What makes a particular performance 'great'? The Greatest Shows on Earth offers an address that focuses sharply on theatre as performance: as an event that can stir the blood, the spirit and the brain like nothing else. The result is a book about fourteen outstanding theatre events from a dozen countries. In discrete, production-focused chapters, work from Peter Brook's King Lear through to the Sydney Olympics Opening Event is approached by a team of international scholars and practitioners, each describing in print that which existed in time and space and, most significantly, within specific contexts. What binds these chapters together is the conviction that whilst liveness disappears in a moment, spectatorship can translate into documentation that adds something to a work's value ... even as so much else can never be captured in words. In wrestling with ephemerality and memory, The Greatest Shows on Earth does more than make a case for what makes certain theatre great, it foregrounds analysis with emotion and writing with the type of first-person engagement that is usually edited out rather than invited in. John Freeman lectures in Performance Studies at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. He has written extensively on theatre, art, pedagogy and research for numerous international journals, newspapers, magazines, books, government and funding agencies, galleries, festivals and consultancy panels. The Greatest Shows on Earth is his fifth book.

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Page Count

345

Publisher

Libri Publishing Limited

Published Date

ISBN 10

1907471871

ISBN 13

9781907471872

The Making of the West End Stage

Marriage, Management and the Mapping of Gender in London, 1830-1870

By: Professor Jacky Bratton

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The Making of the West End Stage

Marriage, Management and the Mapping of Gender in London, 1830-1870

By: Professor Jacky Bratton

Bratton presents a completely new history of the dynamic beginnings of the modern world of London West End theatre.

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Page Count

231

Published Date

ISBN 10

1139190237

ISBN 13

9781139190237

Book's by Professor Jacky Bratton

From Archaeology to Spectacle in Victorian Britain

From Archaeology to Spectacle in Victorian Britain

Transgressive Theatricality, Romanticism, and Mary Wollstonecraft

Transgressive Theatricality, Romanticism, and Mary Wollstonecraft

The Greatest Shows on Earth

The Greatest Shows on Earth

The Making of the West End Stage

The Making of the West End Stage

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