Shakespeare, Time and the Victorians
A Pictorial Exploration

Sillars explores how the Victorians saw Shakespeare and the nature of time, as manifested in their performances, painting and photography.

Stuart Sillars (Author)

9780521509695, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 December 2011

384 pages, 120 b/w illus. 70 colour illus.
25.4 x 20 x 3 cm, 1.3 kg

'It will remain an outstanding contribution to this field for many years to come … an outstanding book on one significant element within Victorian culture.' J. B. Bullen, Memori Di Shakespeare

Time and the visual sense were two essential preoccupations of the Victorians, and both were central to their presentations of Shakespeare's plays. In this extensive new study, Stuart Sillars examines multiple facets of this complex relationship. The desire for authenticity in production, in the work of Charles Kean and his followers, leads to elaborate sets that define and direct the performances' movement through time. Visual artists of all kinds fracture and extend the plays' movements, the Pre-Raphaelites through new techniques and approaches, illustrators through new forms of engraving and printing, and photographers through the emerging forms of the medium. The book also considers the multiple forms in which performances were recorded and re-created visually, and absorbed into the memories of their viewers. With many previously unpublished images, it draws together multiple fields to offer a new perspective on one of the most productive and various periods of Shakespeare activity.

1. History, theatre and Shakespeare
2. Dress, attribute and image
3. Pre-Raphaelite Meridian
4. Charles Kean, staging and time
5. Memorialising performance
6. Ars et Veritas: photography and the Victorian stage
7. Fragmentation, excision and dispersal
8. Painting beyond Pre-Raphaelitism
9. Later stagings and the debate with painting
10. Encounters and memories
Select bibliography.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]