Nostalgia in Print and Performance, 1510-1613: Merry Worlds (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781108482271)

For many people in early modern England the Reformation turned the past into another country: the 'merry world'. Nostalgia for this imaginary time, both widespread and widely contested, was commodified by a burgeoning entertainment industry. This book offers a new perspective on the making of 'Merry England', arguing that it was driven both by the desires of audiences and the marketing strategies of writers, publishers and playing companies. Nostalgia in Print and Performance juxtaposes plays with ballads and pamphlets, just as they were experienced by their first consumers. It argues that these commercial fictions played a central role in promoting and shaping nostalgia. At the same time, the fantasy of the merry world offered a powerfully affective language for conceptualising longing. For playwrights like Shakespeare and others writing for the commercial stage, it became a way to think through the dynamics of audience desire and the aesthetics of repetition.

Author: Harriet Phillips
ISBN-10: 1108482279
ISBN-13: 9781108482271
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/27/2019
Pages: 248
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.12lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2020