{"product_id":"theater-of-a-city-the-places-of-london-comedy-1598-1642-paperback-softback-9780812220636","title":"Theater of a City; The Places of London Comedy, 1598-1642 (Paperback \/ softback) 9780812220636","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eTheater of a City\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Places of London Comedy, 1598-1642\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eJean E. Howard (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812220636\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 24 April 2009\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e288 pages, 18 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.43 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"A vitally important contribution to our understanding of the construction of identities in the emerging London metropolis.\" (\u003ci\u003eJournal of British Studies\u003c\/i\u003e) \"Howard's superb book . . . remakes the way we think of or read about this period of theater history in which London played such an important role.\" (\u003ci\u003eStudies in English Literature 1500-1900\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eArguing that the commercial stage depended on the unprecedented demographic growth and commercial vibrancy of London to fuel its own development, Jean E. Howard posits a particular synergy between the early modern stage and the city in which it flourished.\u003cbr\u003e In London comedy, place functions as the material arena in which social relations are regulated, urban problems negotiated, and city space rendered socially intelligible. Rather than simply describing London, the stage participated in interpreting it and giving it social meaning. Each chapter of this book focuses on a particular place within the city-the Royal Exchange, the Counters, London's whorehouses, and its academies of manners-and examines the theater's role in creating distinctive narratives about each. In these stories, specific locations are transformed into venues defined by particular kinds of interactions, whether between citizen and alien, debtor and creditor, prostitute and client, or dancing master and country gentleman. Collectively, they suggest how city space could be used and by whom, and they make place the arena for addressing pressing urban problems: demographic change and the influx of foreigners and strangers into the city; new ways of making money and losing it; changing gender roles within the metropolis; and the rise of a distinctive \"town culture\" in the West End.\u003cbr\u003e Drawing on a wide range of familiar and little-studied plays from four decades of a defining era of theater history, \u003ci\u003eTheater of a City\u003c\/i\u003e shows how the stage imaginatively shaped and responded to the changing face of early modern London.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e 1. Staging Commercial London: The Royal Exchange\u003cbr\u003e 2. Credit, Incarceration, and Performance: Staging London's Debtors' Prisons\u003cbr\u003e 3. (W)holesaling: Bawdy Houses and Whore Plots in the Drama's Staging of London\u003cbr\u003e 4. Ballrooms and Academies: Producing the Cosmopolitan Body in West End London\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52735313412376,"sku":"9780812220636","price":18.37,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/theater-of-a-city-the-places-of-london-comedy-1598-1642-paperback-softback-9780812220636","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}