Partial Histories: A Reappraisal of Colley Cibber - 9781137027184

This book explores the multiple portrayals of the actor and theatre manager Colley Cibber, king of the dunces, professional fop, defacer of Shakespeare and the cruel and unforgiving father of Charlotte Charke. But these portraits of Cibber are doubly partial, exposing even as they paper over gaps and biases in the archive while reflecting back modern desires and methodologies. The Colley Cibber æeverybody knowsÆ has been variously constructed through the rise of English literature as both a cultural enterprise and an academic discipline, a process which made Shakespeare the ænationÆs poetÆ and canonised CibberÆs enemies Pope and Fielding; theatre historyÆs narrative of the birth of naturalism; and the reclamation and celebration of Charlotte Charke by womenÆs literary history. Each of these stories requires a Colley Cibber to be its butt, antithesis, and/or b?te noir. This monograph challenges these partial histories and returns the theatre manager, playwright, poet laureate and bon viveur to the centre of eighteenth-century culture and cultural studies.

• | Author: Elaine McGirr
• | Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• | Publication Date: Jun 02, 2016
• | Number of Pages: 219 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover/Performing Arts
• | ISBN-10: 1137027185
• | ISBN-13: 9781137027184