1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910791880103321

Autore

Nemerov Alexander

Titolo

Acting in the night [[electronic resource] ] : Macbeth and the places of the Civil War / / Alexander Nemerov

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2010

ISBN

1-283-27728-X

9786613277282

0-520-94744-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (313 p.)

Classificazione

15.85

18.05

Disciplina

792.0973/09034

Soggetti

Theater and society - Washington (D.C.) - History - 19th century

Theater - Washington (D.C.) - History - 19th century

United States History Civil War, 1861-1865 Theater and the war

United States History Civil War, 1861-1865 Social aspects

Washington (D.C.) History Civil War, 1861-1865 Social aspects

Virginia History Civil War, 1861-1865 Social aspects

Washington (D.C.) Social conditions 19th century

Virginia Social conditions 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"Ahmanson-Murphy fine arts imprint."

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: A Drop That Dyes the Seas -- 1. A Stone's Throw: Charlotte Cushman -- 2. The Flame of Place: Abraham Lincoln -- 3. The Glass Case: Interior Life in Washington, D.C. -- 4. Acoustic Shadows: The Battle of Bristoe Station -- 5. Center of Echoes: Castle Murray, Fauquier County, Virginia -- 6. Ghosts: The Death of Colonel Thomas Ru‹n, October 17, 1863 -- 7. Sound and Fury: Nature in Virginia -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Illustrations -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

What can the performance of a single play on one specific night tell us about the world this event inhabited so briefly? Alexander Nemerov takes a performance of Macbeth in Washington, DC on October 17, 1863-with Abraham Lincoln in attendance-to explore this question and



illuminate American art, politics, technology, and life as it was being lived. Nemerov's inspiration is Wallace Stevens and his poem "Anecdote of the Jar," in which a single object organizes the wilderness around it in the consciousness of the poet. For Nemerov, that evening's performance of Macbeth reached across the tragedy of civil war to acknowledge the horrors and emptiness of a world it tried and ultimately failed to change.