Routledge Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama)

Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance features essays questioning the extent to which education, an activity pursued in the home, classroom, and the church, led to, mirrored, and was perhaps even transformed by moments of instruction on stage. This volume argues that along with the popular press, the early modern stage is also a key pedagogical site and that education”performed and performative”plays a central role in gender construction. The wealth of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century printed and manuscript documents devoted to education (parenting guides, conduct books, domestic manuals, catechisms, diaries, and autobiographical writings) encourages examination of how education contributed to the formation of gendered and hierarchical structures, as well as the production, reproduction, and performance of masculinity and femininity. In examining both dramatic and non-dramatic texts via aspects of performance theory, this collection explores the ways education instilled formal academic knowledge, but also elucidates how educational practices disciplined students as members of their social realm, citizens of a nation, and representatives of their gender. Review '... this volume is a valuable new resource for those studying the ubiquitous gendered trope of teaching on the early modern stage, in all sorts of texts on education and gender ideology, and in the lived experiences of Englishmen and Englishwomen.' Renaissance Quarterly '... this collection is enjoyable and informative...' Early Theatre 'These individual essays make valuable contributions to early modern scholarship. Indeed, Performing Pedagogy is at its best when contributors ... use archival work to support their theses and when discussions of pedagogy ... redefine how we understand canonical characters and texts. Readers will be convinced by Moncrief and McPherson's proposal that the early modern stage is an important and severely under-discussed pedagogical site, especially in the teaching (and sometimes subverting) of gender roles.' Renaissance Studies About the Author Kathryn M. Moncrief is Chair and Associate Professor of English at Washington College in Maryland. Kathryn R. McPherson is Professor of English at Utah Valley University.