Sheridan Knowles in context. (Volumes I and II).
Item
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Title
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Sheridan Knowles in context. (Volumes I and II).
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Identifier
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AAI9521266
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identifier
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9521266
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Creator
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Drago, Anthony R.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Morris Dickstein
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English | Theater
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Abstract
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This dissertation is a wide-ranging, detailed contextual study of the pre-Victorian phase (1815-31) of the dramatic career of the once famous but now forgotten early nineteenth-century verse dramatist, James Sheridan Knowles. It is divided into three parts: part one concerns Knowles in the context of politics and society; part two in the context of early nineteenth-century drama; and part three in the context of early nineteenth-century theater, including his professional relationship with Edmund Kean and with William Charles Macready, who acted in the four plays focussed on in this study: Caius Gracchus, Virginius, William Tell, and Alfred the Great. It attempts to show how Knowles's plays reflect their age in terms of politics, social ideals and developments in the theater, with melodrama exerting the dominant and most vital dramaturgical and theatrical influence. By relating Knowles and his plays to the period in which they were written (a turbulent era that extended from Waterloo to the Great Reform Bill), one can gain a greater appreciation of why Knowles was esteemed so highly in his own age and why his verse plays succeeded in the theater whereas so many others written by his contemporaries did not. Portraits of Knowles, along with copies of original-night playbills and other illustrations are included.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
