A remarkable thing happened when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660. He passed an edict that from then on only women would play female roles on the London Stage. (Previous to the Restoration period, boys played female parts.) This course will consider the important ramifications of having women on the stage: Did it encourage the emergence of female playwrights? Did it affect the kinds of plays being written by male playwrights? Did it result in sexual exploitation of women on and off the stage? How were the first actresses viewed and the female playwrights who followed them?
We will study the work of little-known but important women playwrights such as the first professional woman writer--Aphra Behn. We will read the "she-tragedies" of Nicholas Rowe who centered entire plays around his female characters. We will explore the position of "older women" in plays written by famous male playwrights like Congreve, Goldsmith, and Sheridan.
We will look at the new prevalence of "rape" scenes and other changes on the stage with the advent of the actress. We will compare the treatment of the relationships between the sexes in plays by both men and women. We will also explore a number of different genres present on the London stage at this time: sentimental comedy, laughing comedy, comedy of manners, ballad operas, farce, common-man tragedy, and sentimental tragedy.
There will be a good deal of lively discussion as well as careful critical analysis in short responses on the shared readings, in essay exams, and in a final project on a topic of special interest to the student.