Looking and Being Looked At

Abstract:

Studies of the relationship between visual culture and performance in British theatre history have generally focused on actors and scenography and what they signify onstage. 1 This is perfectly legitimate and, in the case of performers, can often provide implicit critique rather than neutral representation. Less attention has been paid to the representation of spectators in British theatre history, and the ways in which such representations indicate modes of looking and the performance of spectatorship. This essay seeks to consider the representation of spectators between the late eighteenth and late nineteenth centuries, and what this tells us about how audiences looked, perceived, and observed, and how they were looked at. Commencing with a discussion of the installation of the looking-glass curtain at the Coburg Theatre, which raises fundamental questions about the spectator as spectacle, the essay …

Año de publicación:

2017

Keywords:

Fuente:

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