Overview

«Bardolatry», that whimsical term referring to Shakespeare’s rise to canonical status as well as to his worshippers’ adulation, solidified within the theatrical discourses of the eighteenth century and the British Romantic era. Celestine Woo examines the era’s four most celebrated Shakespeare performers in London – David Garrick, John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons, and Edmund Kean – arguing that they broadened and altered the boundaries of Shakespearean discourse in specific ways, offering and modeling novel paradigms by which to apprehend Shakespeare, and thus contributing to the growth of bardolatry as a discursive phenomenon. Using Pierre Bourdieu as a model, Woo traces the development of Shakespearean discourse as a field of cultural production, shaped by these actors. By examining their disparate approaches to performing Shakespeare, she reveals that Shakespeare as an icon became commodified, politicized, gendered, and increasingly appropriated within literary and dramatic discourse as a result of the influences of these four performers. Her analysis deepens our understanding of the processes by which Shakespeare was institutionalized as a figure representing national character, human nature, and the breadth of human experience.

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9781433101632

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Reviews

'Romantic Actors and Bardolatry' persuasively demonstrates that the best-known actors of the Romantic period not only helped shape the critical discourse on Shakespeare but also produced a body of theory that rivals critics and scholars of the age. By examining the writings of Garrick, Kemble, Siddons, and Kean - and the effects that their interpretations had on a culture increasingly drawn to the celebrity of its actors and its most famous playwright - Celestine Woo broadens our understanding of the history of Romantic criticism and theory. Her book makes the case that the actor as scholar is an important topic of analysis for all theatre historians. (Catherine Burroughs, Wells College) 'Romantic Actors and Bardolatry' joins an impressive body of work on the theatre that has been transforming our understanding of Romantic-period literature and cultural production more broadly. Woo's distinctive approach here is to consider the decisive and often quite calculated role that the leading Shakespearean performers of the age (Garrick, Kemble, Siddons, and Kean) played in the development of 'bardolatry', the treatment of Shakespeare as national icon and cultural commodity. Through close studies that range from stage gesture and elocution to theatre reviews and emerging scholarly analysis, Woo reminds us of just how central Shakespearean performance was to the development of Romantic culture, particularly where character and the passions are concerned. Indeed, the tendency to understand Shakespeare in terms of character, easily treated as a reductive Romantic development, emerges here as an opening on to a rich field of cultural possibilities. Romantic Actors and Bardolatry is particularly astute in its treatment of transactions between stage performance and critical reviewing, so that we witness performers responding to the press, even as familiar theorists of the arts (particularly Hazlitt) are conditioned by styles of contemporary performance. (Kevin Gilmartin, University of York)

"""'Romantic Actors and Bardolatry' persuasively demonstrates that the best-known actors of the Romantic period not only helped shape the critical discourse on Shakespeare but also produced a body of theory that rivals critics and scholars of the age. By examining the writings of Garrick, Kemble, Siddons, and Kean - and the effects that their interpretations had on a culture increasingly drawn to the celebrity of its actors and its most famous playwright - Celestine Woo broadens our understanding of the history of Romantic criticism and theory. Her book makes the case that the actor as scholar is an important topic of analysis for all theatre historians."" (Catherine Burroughs, Wells College) ""'Romantic Actors and Bardolatry' joins an impressive body of work on the theatre that has been transforming our understanding of Romantic-period literature and cultural production more broadly. Woo's distinctive approach here is to consider the decisive and often quite calculated role that the leading Shakespearean performers of the age (Garrick, Kemble, Siddons, and Kean) played in the development of 'bardolatry', the treatment of Shakespeare as national icon and cultural commodity. Through close studies that range from stage gesture and elocution to theatre reviews and emerging scholarly analysis, Woo reminds us of just how central Shakespearean performance was to the development of Romantic culture, particularly where character and the passions are concerned. Indeed, the tendency to understand Shakespeare in terms of character, easily treated as a reductive Romantic development, emerges here as an opening on to a rich field of cultural possibilities. Romantic Actors and Bardolatry is particularly astute in its treatment of transactions between stage performance and critical reviewing, so that we witness performers responding to the press, even as familiar theorists of the arts (particularly Hazlitt) are conditioned by styles of contemporary performance."" (Kevin Gilmartin, University of York)"

«'Romantic Actors and Bardolatry' joins an impressive body of work on the theatre that has been transforming our understanding of Romantic-period literature and cultural production more broadly. Woo's distinctive approach here is to consider the decisive and often quite calculated role that the leading Shakespearean performers of the age (Garrick, Kemble, Siddons, and Kean) played in the development of 'bardolatry', the treatment of Shakespeare as national icon and cultural commodity. Through close studies that range from stage gesture and elocution to theatre reviews and emerging scholarly analysis, Woo reminds us of just how central Shakespearean performance was to the development of Romantic culture, particularly where character and the passions are concerned. Indeed, the tendency to understand Shakespeare in terms of character, easily treated as a reductive Romantic development, emerges here as an opening on to a rich field of cultural possibilities. Romantic Actors and Bardolatry is particularly astute in its treatment of transactions between stage performance and critical reviewing, so that we witness performers responding to the press, even as familiar theorists of the arts (particularly Hazlitt) are conditioned by styles of contemporary performance. -- Kevin Gilmartin

Author Information

The Author: Celestine Woo is Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Empire State College in Hartsdale, New York, where she teaches Shakespeare, British literature, and writing. She received her Ph.D. from New York University. She has published poetry as well as articles on Shakespeare, Sarah Siddons, Asian American literature, and children's literature.

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