1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910466775703321

Autore

Straumann Barbara

Titolo

Female performers in British and American fiction / / Barbara Straumann

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; Boston : , : De Gruyter, , [2018]

©2018

ISBN

3-11-055866-1

3-11-056104-2

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (314 pages)

Collana

Buchreihe der Anglia / Anglia book series ; ; 58

Disciplina

820.8008

Soggetti

English literature - 19th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Corinne and Her Aftereffects on the British Stage -- 3. Visionary Preaching in Britain and America -- 4. American Political Speakers -- 5. Acting Anxieties -- 6. Fin-de-Siècle Ventriloquism and Modernist Self-Authorship -- 7. Conclusion -- Illustration Credits -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The female performer with a public voice constitutes a remarkably vibrant theme in British and American narratives of the long nineteenth century. The tension between fictional female performers and other textual voices can be seen to refigure the cultural debate over the 'voice' of women in aesthetically complex ways. By focusing on singers, actresses, preachers and speakers, this book traces and explores an important tradition of feminine articulation.Drawing on critical approaches in literary studies, gender studies and philosophy, the book conceptualizes voice for the discussion of narrative texts. Examining voice both as a thematic concern and as an aesthetic effect, the individual chapters analyse how the actual articulation by female performers correlates with their cultural visibility and agency. What this study foregrounds is how women characters succeed in making themselves heard even if their voices are silenced in the end.