1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910484956803321

Autore

Beale Sam

Titolo

The Comedy and Legacy of Music-Hall Women 1880-1920 : Brazen Impudence and Boisterous Vulgarity / / by Sam Beale

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2020

ISBN

9783030479411

3030479412

Edizione

[1st ed. 2020.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource

Collana

Palgrave Studies in Comedy, , 2731-4340

Disciplina

792.702809252

301

Soggetti

Comedy

Performing arts

Theater

Culture - Study and teaching

Feminism

Feminist theory

Comedy Studies

Theatre and Performance Arts

Cultural Studies

Feminism and Feminist Theory

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: 'reweaving' women's comic performance history -- Chapter 1: 'Sentiments unwomanly and unnatural': moral ambiguity, censorship and public perceptions of the serio-comic performer -- Chapter 2: 'A Comfort and Blessing To Man': performed irony, self-deprecation and comic subversions of gender stereotypes -- Chapter 3: 'Can We Talk?': intimacy, 'gagging' and comic licence in performer-audience relationships -- Chapter 4 'I mustn't tell you what I mean' knowing, not knowing and comic innuendo as performed (self) censorship -- Chapter 5 'Every Little Movement Has A Meaning of Its Own': comic gestus and the ironic embodiment of gender --



Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

This book explores the comedy and legacy of women working as performers on the music-hall stage from 1880-1920, and examines the significance of their previously overlooked contributions to British comic traditions. Focusing on the under-researched female 'serio-comic', the study includes six micro-histories detailing the acts of Ada Lundberg, Bessie Bellwood, Maidie Scott, Vesta Victoria, Marie Lloyd and Nellie Wallace. Uniquely for women in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, these pioneering performers had public voices. The extent to which their comedy challenged Victorian and Edwardian perceptions of women is revealed through explorations of how they connected with popular audiences while also avoiding censorship. Their use of techniques such as comic irony and stereotyping, self-deprecation, and comic innuendo are considered alongside the work of contemporary stand-up comedians and performance artists including Bridget Christie, Bryony Kimmings, Sara Pascoe, ShaziaMirza and Sarah Silverman.