Costuming the Shakespearean Stage: Visual Codes of Representation in Early Modern Theatre and Culture

by Robert I Lublin, Helen Ostovich

Overview

Although scholars have long considered the material conditions surrounding the production of early modern drama, until now, no book-length examination has sought to explain what was worn on the period's stages and, more importantly, how articles of apparel were understood when seen by contemporary audiences. Robert Lublin's new study considers royal proclamations, religious writings, paintings, woodcuts, plays, historical accounts, sermons, and legal documents to investigate what Shakespearean actors actually wore in production and what cultural information those costumes conveyed.

Four of the chapters of Costuming the Shakespearean Stage address 'categories of seeing': visually based semiotic systems according to which costumes constructed and conveyed information on the early modern stage. The four categories include gender, social station, nationality, and religion. The fifth chapter examines one play, Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess, to show how costumes signified across the categories of seeing to establish a play's distinctive semiotics and visual aesthetic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409479048
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	05/28/2013
Series:	Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Robert I. Lublin is Chair of Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA.

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction; Sex and gender; Social station; Foreigners; Religion; 'An vnder black dublett signifying a Spanish hart': costumes and politics in Middleton's A Game at Chess; Works cited; Index.