Awards

• Winner of The American Comparative Literature Association's Harry Levin prize for the best book in comparative literary history published between 1999-2002.

Overview

Theatre of the Book is an account of the entangled histories of print and the theatre in Europe between the Renaissance and the late nineteenth century: a history of European dramatic publication (providing comparative and historical perspective to the growing field of textual studies); an examination of the creation of the modern notion of text and performance; and a comparative genealogy of ideas about theatrical and textual reception. It shows that, far from being marginal to Renaissance dramatists, the printing press had an essential role to play in the birth of the modern theatre, crucially shaping the normative conception of 'theatre' as a distinct aesthetic medium and of drama as a distinct narrative form, helping to forge a theatricalist aesthetics in opposition to 'the book'. Treating playtexts, engravings, actor portraits, notation systems, and theatrical ephemera at once as material objects and expressions of complex cultural formations, Theatre of the Book examines the European theatre's continual refashioning of itself in the world of print.

Full Product Details

Author:   Julie Stone Peters (, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, NY)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.20cm , Height: 3.10cm , Length: 24.20cm
Weight:   0.926kg
ISBN:  

9780198187141

ISBN 10:   0198187149
Pages:   506
Publication Date:   09 November 2000
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Introduction I: PRINTING THE DRAMA 1: Experimenting on the page, 1480-1630 2: Drama as institution, 1630-1760 3: Illustrations, promptbooks, stage texts, 1760-1880 II: THEATRE IMPRIMATUR 4: Reinventing 'theatre' via the printing press 5: Critical law, theatrical licence 6: Accurate texts, authoritative editions III THE SENSES OF MEDIA 7: The sense of the senses: sounds, gesture and the body on stage 8: Narrative form and theatrical illusions 9: Framing space: time, perspective, and motion in the image IV: THE COMMERCE OF LETTERS 10: Dramatists, poets, and other scribblers 11: Who owns the play? Pirate, plagiarist, imitator, thief 12: Making it public V: THEATRICAL IMPRESSIONS 13: Scenic pictures 14: Actor/author 15: A theatre too much with us Epilogue Notes Works Cited Index

Reviews

Magnificent ... a magnum opus in more ways than one ... this is a big book and an important one, that merits applause for both the scope of its intellectual ambition and the scholarly integrity and enthusiasm of its execution. Years Work in English Studies Peters' work has a solid foundation in primary sources and detailed documentation ... offers a viable and thoughtful investigation of an important topic. Theatre of the Book is thought-provoking and dense. It is beautifully illustrated with 60 reproductions of various types of literature associated with drama, each one of them a reminder of the durability of print in contrast with the evanescence of performance in the pre-electronic era. History of European Ideas Deft handling of a great number and variety of sources ... The author has thankfully brought a sense of order to the material, without dulling the complexity with overanalysis ... The notes are clear and helpful in guiding the reader to a wide range of primary sources and scholarly works that bring an added level of authority to the work as a whole. Sixteenth Century Journal This book is an example of some of the exciting work being undertaken in the growing field of book history, a field which has of late lived up to its promise to be truly multidisciplinary. It is an important contribution to the understanding of the impact and legacy of the printing press. Sixteenth Century Journal Eminently scholarly and subtly argued ... Scholars in a variety of fields, especially those who work outside traditional discipline boundaries, will welcome this book as an engaging starting point for research at the intersection of historical bibliography, the history of communication, theatre history, and dramatic theory. Sixteenth Century Journal Remarkable and wide-ranging. Peter Holland, Times Literary Supplement

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