Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theatre and Gender [Paperback]

Alisa Solomon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0415157218 | ISBN-13: 978-0415157216 | Edition: 1

Re-Dressing the Canon examines the relationship between gender and performance in a series of essays which combine the critique of specific live performances with an astute theoretical analysis. Alisa Solomon discusses both canonical texts and contemporary productions in a lively jargon-free style. Among the dramatic texts considered are those of Aristophanes, Ibsen, Yiddish theatre, Mabou Mines, Deborah Warner, Shakespeare, Brecht, Split Britches, Ridiculous Theatre, and Tony Kushner.
Bringing to bear theories of 'gender performativity' upon theatrical events, the author explores:
* the 'double disguise' of cross-dressed boy-actresses
* how gender relates to genre (particularly in Ibsens' realism)
* how canonical theatre represented gender in ways which maintain traditional images of masculinity and femininity.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Theater critic, dramaturge, and Village Voice staff writer Solomon (English and Theater/City Univ. of New York Graduate Center) offers a fresh, authoritative view of the canon as the seat, not the nemesis, of postmodern gender theory. Solomon pairs close textual readings of gender complexity in Shakespeare, Ibsen, Aristophanes, and Brecht with reviews of avant-garde productions that unleashed what she considers the inherent trangressiveness of these writers' works. While feminist and queer theorists see only a reinforcement of heterosexism and phallocentricity even in the canon's most ribald gender-bending, Solomon sees real subversion--an invitation to question gender norms. In her analysis of the British theater troupe Cheek by Jowl's all-male production of As You Like It, the Mabou Mines role-reversed King Lear (Lear is played by a woman), the Yiddish King Lear, Charles Ludlum's Hedda Gabler, and the Split Britches' deconstructed A Streetcar Named Desire, Solomon sees a proper rediscovery of all the ``polymorphous potential'' endemic to these plays. To Solomon, these iconoclastic productions were neither as inventive nor as disrespectful as we might think. On the contrary, they did justice for the first time to the richness of these classic texts. The crusty greats deserve more credit than we've given them, argues Solomon. They understood quite well, as did the Puritans who banned their art in Cromwell's England, that theater, as imitation, as performance, as self-consciousness, as irony, is tailor-made for revolt against the social shackles, not just of gender, but of class, race, and sexuality. Solomon is convincing and refreshingly nondogmatic. She has the knowledge, style, and suppleness of mind to make bedfellows of revisionists and dead white males. Her dissent is helpful, not dismissive, inclusive, not harsh. This invaluable contribution to the canon wars is rare manna from academia. (12 b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

An important contribution to the study of theater, gender, and the feminist theory, this detailed study is broad in scope and has more useful material than many books twice the size.
–Choice, July/August 1998

...the collection offers an engaging feminist perspective on the plays that the author selects.
–Steven Winn, San Fancisco Chronicle, March 1998

A fresh, authoritative view of the canon as the seat, not the nemesis, of postmodern gender theory. ... Solomon is convincing and refreshingly nondogmatic. She has the knowledge, style, and suppleness of mind to make bedfellows of revisionists and dead white males. Her dissent is helpful, not dismissive, inclusive, not harsh. This invaluable contribution to the canon wars is rare manna from academia.
–Kirkus Reviews, December 1997

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 12, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415157218
• ISBN-13: 978-0415157216
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,314,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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