Aphra Behn: The Comedies

by Kate Aughterson

Overview

Kate Aughterson provides readers with an approachable and fascinating critical guide to the dramatic works of an important seventeenth-century woman writer. Aughterson analyses Aphra Behn's abilities as a playwright, showing particularly how she skillfully employs comic and dramatic conventions to radical ends, and how she forces her audience to engage with issues about gender and sexuality whilst retaining her witty and accessible style.

Chapters in the first part of the book provide close readings of the comedies, addressing such topics as openings, endings, character types, staging, and politics and society. In the second part, Aughterson not only examines Behn's literary career and the Restoration contexts of her plays, but also looks at some sample criticism and explores Behn's drama as performance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350317925
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Series:	Analysing Texts
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	259
File size:	624 KB

About the Author

KATE AUGHTERSON is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Central England. She is the author of Webster: The Tragedies, also in the Analysing Texts series.
KATE AUGHTERSON is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Central England, UK.

Table of Contents

General Editor's Preface
A Note on Editions
Introduction
PART ONE: ANALYSING BEHN'S COMEDIES
Openings
Endings
Discovery Scenes
Heroines and Whores
Rakes and Gallants
Doubled Plots
Staging
Carnival and Masquerade
Politics and Society
General Conclusions to Part One
PART TWO: CONTEXTS AND CRITICS
Behn's Literary Career
Restoration Contexts
Sample Critical Views and Performances
Further Reading
Index.