More Details

Summary:

"The rise of celebrity stage actresses in the long eighteenth century created a class of women who worked in the public sphere while facing considerable scrutiny about their offstage lives. Such powerful celebrity women used the cultural and affective significance of their reproductive bodies to leverage audience support and interest to advance their careers, and eighteenth-century London patent theatres even capitalized on their pregnancies. Carrying All Before Her uses the reproductive histories of six celebrity women (Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen, Anne Oldfield, Susannah Cibber, George Anne Bellamy, Sarah Siddons, and Dorothy Jordan) to demonstrate that pregnancy affected celebrity identity, impacted audience reception and interpretation of performance, changed company repertory and altered company hierarchy, influenced the development and performance of new plays, and had substantial economic consequences for both women and the companies for which they worked. Deepening the fields of celebrity, theatre, and women's studies, as well as social and medical histories, Phillips reveals an untapped history whose relevance and impact persist today"-- [Provided by publisher]

Table of Contents:

• Machine generated contents note: 1. Inheriting Greatness: Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen and Anne Oldfield
• 2. Pregnant Sensibility: Susannah Cibber and George Anne Bellamy
• 3. Conceiving Genius: Sarah Siddons
• 4. Prolific Muse: Dorothy Jordan.

Author/Creator:

Phillips, Chelsea , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Carrying all before her: celebrity pregnancy and the London stage, 1689-1800 [by Phillips, C.]

Related Series:

Performing celebrity

Subjects:

Pregnant women in the theater — England — History — 18th century

Theater — England — London — History — 18th century

Actresses — England — London — History — 18th century

Theater and society — England — London — History — 18th century

London (England) — Social life and customs — 18th century

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Call Numbers:

PN2592.13.P74 P45 2022eb

ISBNs:

9781644532515 (electronic bk.)
1644532514 (electronic bk.)
9781644532485 [Invalid]
1644532484 [Invalid]
9781644532492 [Invalid]
1644532492 [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

1289371528

Other Control Numbers:

EBC6825086 (source: MiAaPQ)
[Unknown Type]: ybp17598707