Closet Drama History, Theory, Form

Closet Drama: History, Theory, Form introduces the emerging field of Closet Drama Studies by featuring twelve original essays from distinguished scholars who offer fresh and illuminating perspectives on closet drama as a genre. Examining an unusual mix of historical narratives, performances, and texts from the Renaissance to the present, this collection unleashes a provocative array of theoretical concerns about the phenomenon of the closet play—a dramatic text written for reading rather than acting.

I. CLOSET DRAMA AND STAGINGS OF HISTORY CHAPTER ONE: Introduction: "Closet Drama Studies"Catherine Burroughs CHAPTER TWO: The baroque closet: sovereignty and the "home theater" of CervantesPhilip Lorenz CHAPTER THREE: Inverted catharsisin Milton’s ?Samson Agonistes Brendan Prawzdik CHAPTER FOUR: "Appalling tabernacle of self and unbelief": Wyndham Lewis’s Enemy of the StarsAllan Pero II. GENDER, SEXUAL POLITICS, AND THE CLOSET CHAPTER FIVE: Horror and terror,genderand fear in Joanna Baillie’s OrraLilla Crisafulli CHAPTER SIX: Restoration in the closet: Felicia Hemans’ drama in the Napoleonic aftermathDiego Saglia CHAPTER SEVEN: Michael Field's Stephania: the closet drama as a space for female fortitude and artistic agencyMichelle S. Lee III. CLOSET DRAMA AND GENRE CHAPTER EIGHT: "Closeted" discourses in private theatricals: the mystification of genre and audience in Christian Carstairs’ The Hubble-ShueGioia Angeletti CHAPTER NINE: Scarred phonation and the act of listening in Byron's Marino FalieroElizabeth Effinger CHAPTER TEN: "Crazier than a fish with titties": the hybridity of closet drama in R. Kelly’s Trapped in the ClosetFredric V. Bogel IV: FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR CLOSET DRAMA STUDIES CHAPTER ELEVEN: Closet television, queer HoopermanNick Salvato CHAPTER TWELVE: Theatrical performance in the margins: imagined theatres on page and stageDaniel Sack Appendix: uncloseting Jonas Barish’sbook on closet dramaCatherine Burroughs

Catherine Burroughs is Professor of English at Wells College and Visiting Professor of English and the Performing Arts and Media Studies Department at Cornell University. A member of Actors’ Equity Association, she is also a novelist.