Gender, Theatre, and the Origins of Criticism
From Dryden to Manley

An exploration of the theoretical and literary legacy of Dryden to a number of prominent women writers of the time.

Marcie Frank (Author)

9780521188654, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 3 March 2011

186 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.1 cm, 0.28 kg

Review of the hardback: '… this is a book which is worthy of interest and which makes significant claims about the history and the gendering of literary criticism.' Renaissance Journal

In Gender, Theatre and the Origins of Criticism, Marcie Frank explores the theoretical and literary legacy of John Dryden to a number of prominent women writers of the time. Frank examines the pre-eminence of gender, sexuality and the theatre in Dryden's critical texts that are predominantly rewritings of the work of his own literary precursors - Ben Jonson, Shakespeare and Milton. She proposes that Dryden develops a native literary tradition that is passed on as an inheritance to his heirs - Aphra Behn, Catharine Trotter, and Delarivier Manley - as well as their male contemporaries. Frank describes the development of criticism in the transition from a court-sponsored theatrical culture to one oriented toward a consuming public, with very different attitudes to gender and sexuality. This study also sets out to trace the historical origins of certain aspects of current criticism - the practices of paraphrase, critical self-consciousness and performativity.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: the critical stage
1. 'Equal to ourselves': John Dryden's national literary history
2. Staging criticism, staging Milton: John Dryden's The State of Innocence
3. Imitating Shakespeare: gender and criticism
4. The female playwright and the city lady
5. Scandals of a female nature
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]