Privacy, Playreading, and Women's Closet Drama, 15501700 [Paperback]

This study investigates the tradition of closet drama written and read by women in early modern England.Marta Straznicky offers a detailed historical analysis of the relationship between early modern women's closet plays and the culture of reading. She reveals that these works, by Elizabeth Cary and Margaret Cavendish among others, were part of an alternative dramatic tradition, an elite and private literary culture, which was understood as intellectually superior to and politically more radical than commercial drama. This study offers a new insight into the place of women's closet plays both in the history of women's writing and in the history of English drama.Marta Straznicky offers a detailed historical analysis of the relationship between early modern women's closet plays and the culture of reading. She reveals that these works, by Elizabeth Cary and Margaret Cavendish among others, were part of an alternative dramatic tradition, an elite and private literary culture, which was understood as intellectually superior to and politically more radical than commercial drama. This study offers a new insight into the place of women's closet plays both in the history of women's writing and in the history of English drama.Marta Straznicky offers a detailed historical analysis of the relationship between early modern women's closet plays and the culture of reading. Straznicky reveals that these works, by Elizabeth Cary and Margaret Cavendish, among others, were part of an alternative dramatic tradition, an elite and private literary culture that was intellectually superior to, and politically more radical than, commercial drama.Introduction; 1. Privacy, play reading and performance; 2. Jane Lumley: humanist translation and the culture of play reading; 3. Elizabeth Cary: 'private' drama and print; 4. Margaret Cavendish: the closing of the theatres and the politics of play reading; 5. Anne Finch: authorship, privacy and the Restoration stage; Conclusion. 'Closet' drama: PrivlC(