Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England

Discourses of the Theatre examines the conflict over the stage and over what was perceived as the proliferation of theatrical practises in Renaissance England. After the first commercial theatre was established in London in 1576, virulent attacks on the stage and on the actors, writers and audiences associated with it, made available a language through which to condemn any practise deemed theatrical, deceitful or disruptive of the social order. Drawing upon materialist and feminist theory, Howard explores the ideological function of anti-theatrical discourse in the period and the gap between the evils of which the stage was accused and its actual cultural function. She challenges the view that the theatre was primarily the servant of monarchical and aristocratic interest and illustrates how new historicism has produced an incomplete picture of early modern theatre.Howard, Jean is the author of 'Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England', published 1994 under ISBN 9780415095532 and ISBN 0415095530.