GENDER AND COMEDY IN THE AGE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Project Description

Launched in February 2015, the research project “Gender and Comedy in the Age of the American Revolution” focuses on early American drama – that is, drama written in the course of the late seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. In spite of their former popularity, many of the plays and playwrights which will be examined in the course of this project have received comparatively little scholarly attention. A central concern of this project is thus to revisit and re-evaluate the largely forgotten early contributions to America’s dramatic canon. The role and influence of female dramatists in an era which is still considered inherently ‘male’ will constitute a special focus of the project.  Above all, we seek to challenge male-centric and heteronormative readings and interpretations of early American dramatic texts. In doing so, we hope to provide more comprehensive and accurate insights into America’s theater history and the early American social, political, and cultural landscape as a whole.
“Gender and Comedy in the Age of the American Revolution” is a three-year project funded by the Austrian Science Fund, FWF.

Digital Archive

In order to share our research with a broader audience, we will establish a digital archive of early American plays. This archive will not only make plays written and produced in the age of the American Revolution accessible, but also provide information on the texts’ content, their authors, and their publication and production histories and contexts.  We hope that this interpretative archive will encourage a more lively interest in hitherto neglected early American plays and in the male and female playwrights of the time.

earlyamericatheater.com

Conference

Call for Papers (closed)

The Politics and Polemics of Gender in Early American Theatre

Project Team

Ralph Poole
Leopold Lippert
Michael Streif
Verena Holztrattner