English Drama: A Cultural History - Tapa dura

Drawing upon new empirical research and the latest theoretical models, this is a comprehensive account of the history of English drama. Through a focus upon key historical moments and modes, in medieval drama, Renaissance and Restoration drama, melodrama, naturalist and modern dramatic practices, it provides insights into theatrical history and, inextricably, the formation of the nation's identity. As a cultural history, the book gives account of the processes of discovery and reception: how Renaissance drama is thought about after the Renaissance, and how, for example, naturalism leads an unlikely afterlife in the work of those who try to deconstruct it. The book tells readers where modern assumptions about drama have come from - what "getting into character" might involve, what being "melodramatic" is, what's modern about drama - in short, what proper theatre is and why.

Peter Womack lectures in the School of English and American Studies at the University of East Anglia.