Cambridge University Press Privacy, Playreading, and Women's Closet Drama, 1550–1700

Marta Straznicky offers a detailed historical analysis of early modern women's closet plays: plays explicitly written for reading, rather than public performance. She reveals that such works were part of an alternative dramatic tradition, an elite and private literary culture, which was understood as intellectually superior to and politically more radical than commercial drama. Elizabeth Cary, Jane Lumley, Anne Finch and Margaret Cavendish wrote their plays in this conjunction of the public and the private at a time when male playwrights dominated the theatres. In her astute readings of the texts, their contexts and their physical appearance in print or manuscript, Straznicky has produced many fresh insights into the place of women's closet plays both in the history of women's writing and in the history of English drama. Review Review of the hardback: '… engaging argument …'. The Times Literary SupplementReview of the hardback: 'The book is a stimulating and suggestive study. The material presented is important in identifying the place of women's closet plays in English drama and in offering fresh insights into the way in which they are more politically charged than commercial drama. Straznicky presents us with a scholarly and carefully researched piece of work that will prove useful for future studies of seventeenth-century closet drama and of early modern female playwrights.' Theatre Research InternationalReview of the hardback: 'Marta Straznicky's book is an essential read for anyone interested in the period 1550–1700, but particularly in women's history and its relationship to the act of writing. The research is impressive and the writing style eloquent, persuasive and accessible, as we are taken on a fascinating journey into the sensitivities surrounding women and writing in the period …' Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Book Description This study investigates the tradition of closet drama written and read by women in early modern England. About the Author Marta Straznicky is Associate Professor of English at Queen's University, Ontario.