Gender, Theatre, and the Origins of Criticism: From Dryden to Manley

by Marcie Frank

Overview

Marcie Frank explores the theoretical and literary legacy of John Dryden to a number of prominent women writers of his time. Frank examines the pre-eminence of gender, sexuality and the theater in Dryden's critical texts that are predominantly rewritings of the work of his own literary precursors—Ben Jonson, Shakespeare and Milton. She proposes that Dryden develops a native literary tradition that is passed on as an inheritance to his heirs—Aphra Behn, Catharine Trotter, and Delarivier Manley—as well as to their male contemporaries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521818100
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/28/2002
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1640L (what's this?)

About the Author

Marcie Frank is Associate Professor of English at Concordia University in Montréal. She has published essays on David Cronenberg, Susan Sontag, and Horace Walpole.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction: the critical stage; 1. 'Equal to ourselves': John Dryden's national literary history; 2. Staging criticism, staging Milton: John Dryden's The State of Innocence; 3. Imitating Shakespeare: gender and criticism; 4. The female playwright and the city lady; 5. Scandals of a female nature; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

Review of the hardback: '… this is a book which is worthy of interest and which makes significant claims about the history and the gendering of literary criticism.' Renaissance Journal

From the Publisher