A01=Jennifer Schacker
Author_Jennifer Schacker
British theater
Category=ATD
characters
children as readers
Cinderella
comedy
comic fiction
commedia dell'arte
commedia dell’arte
costume
costume design
cross-dressing
Daniel O'Rourke
Daniel O’Rourke
disguise
Drury Lane
entertainment
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
fairy extravaganzas
fairyland
fancy-dress
folklore disciplinary history
folktales
Grimm
Harlequin
harlequinades
masquerade
Mother Bunch
Mother Goose
oral tradition
pantomime costumes
pantomime Dame
pantomime roles
principal boy
principal girl
repertoire
sexuality
slapstick comedy
sociability
storytelling
the Yellow Dwarf
theater and print
Theatre Royal
theatricality
Product details
- ISBN 9780814345900
- Weight: 422g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 17 Dec 2018
- Publisher: Wayne State University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Examines pantomime and theatricality in nineteenth-century histories of folklore and the fairy tale.
In nineteenth-century Britain, the spectacular and highly profitable theatrical form known as ""pantomime"" was part of a shared cultural repertoire and a significant medium for the transmission of stories, especially the fairy tales that permeated English popular culture before the advent of folklore study. Rowdy, comedic, and slightly risqué, pantomime productions were situated in dynamic relationship with various forms of print and material culture. Popular fairy-tale theater also informed the production and reception of folklore research in ways that are often overlooked. In Staging Fairyland: Folklore, Children’s Entertainment, and Nineteenth-Century Pantomime, Jennifer Schacker reclaims the place of theatrical performance in this history, developing a model for the intermedial and cross-disciplinary study of narrative cultures.
The case studies that punctuate each chapter move between the realms of print and performance, scholarship and popular culture. Schacker examines pantomime productions of such well-known tales as ""Cinderella,""""Little Red Riding Hood,"" and ""Jack and the Beanstalk,"" as well as others whose popularity has waned—such as ""Daniel O’Rourke"" and ""The Yellow Dwarf."" These productions resonate with traditions of impersonation, cross-dressing, literary imposture, masquerade, and the social practice of ""fancy dress."" Schacker also traces the complex histories of Mother Goose and Mother Bunch, who were often cast as the embodiments of both tale-telling and stage magic and who move through various genres of narrative and forms of print culture. Theoretically informed and methodologically innovative, these examinations push at the limits of prevailing approaches to the fairy tale across media. They also demonstrate the degree to which perspectives on the fairy tale as children's entertainment often obscure the complex histories and ideological underpinnings ofspecific tales.
Mapping the intermedial histories of tales requires a fundamental reconfi guration of our thinking about early folklore study and about ""fairy tales"": their bearing on questions of genre and ideology but also their signifying possibilities—past, present, and future. Readers interested in folklore, fairy-tale studies, children’s literature, and performance studies will embrace this informative monograph.
In nineteenth-century Britain, the spectacular and highly profitable theatrical form known as ""pantomime"" was part of a shared cultural repertoire and a significant medium for the transmission of stories, especially the fairy tales that permeated English popular culture before the advent of folklore study. Rowdy, comedic, and slightly risqué, pantomime productions were situated in dynamic relationship with various forms of print and material culture. Popular fairy-tale theater also informed the production and reception of folklore research in ways that are often overlooked. In Staging Fairyland: Folklore, Children’s Entertainment, and Nineteenth-Century Pantomime, Jennifer Schacker reclaims the place of theatrical performance in this history, developing a model for the intermedial and cross-disciplinary study of narrative cultures.
The case studies that punctuate each chapter move between the realms of print and performance, scholarship and popular culture. Schacker examines pantomime productions of such well-known tales as ""Cinderella,""""Little Red Riding Hood,"" and ""Jack and the Beanstalk,"" as well as others whose popularity has waned—such as ""Daniel O’Rourke"" and ""The Yellow Dwarf."" These productions resonate with traditions of impersonation, cross-dressing, literary imposture, masquerade, and the social practice of ""fancy dress."" Schacker also traces the complex histories of Mother Goose and Mother Bunch, who were often cast as the embodiments of both tale-telling and stage magic and who move through various genres of narrative and forms of print culture. Theoretically informed and methodologically innovative, these examinations push at the limits of prevailing approaches to the fairy tale across media. They also demonstrate the degree to which perspectives on the fairy tale as children's entertainment often obscure the complex histories and ideological underpinnings ofspecific tales.
Mapping the intermedial histories of tales requires a fundamental reconfi guration of our thinking about early folklore study and about ""fairy tales"": their bearing on questions of genre and ideology but also their signifying possibilities—past, present, and future. Readers interested in folklore, fairy-tale studies, children’s literature, and performance studies will embrace this informative monograph.
Jennifer Schacker is associate professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph and the author of National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth-Century England. She is also co-author of Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives.
