Theatre and Novel in Georgian England

1714-1830Audiences and Readers

Judith HawleyRoyal Holloway, University of London

I. DETERMINING OBJECTS OF STUDY

1. Bibliography of references to plays in novels and vice versa

2. Bibliography of authors who wrote both media

3. Bibliography of novels that were turned into plays and vice versa

4. Development of play texts to become more ‘novelistic’

5. Writers as readers of other works6. Depictions of readers and audience

members in novels and plays – plays tend to stereotype audience members. Does the novel individuate readers more?

7. Traces of reading / spectatorship in marginalia, diaries, letters

8. Published reviews, puffs, etc. of both novels and plays in papers and journals

9. Critiques of the dangers of novel reading/play going

II. METHODOLOGIES1. Numerous models available of reader-

response theory2. Numerous models of audience studies3. Participatory vs. passive consumption 4. Analysis of the correlation between the

popularity of plays on the stage and their representation in novels

5. Analysis of the genres alluded to in novels 6. Comparative analysis of market forces

III. QUIXOTISMO Anxieties about the failure of readers/audiences

to distinguish between art and lifeO Cross over from consumption to

production/participationO Cult of sensibility in both media encouraged

audience projectionO Acting out of fantasiesO Not knowing one’s placeO Private theatricals in life and literatureO Pic-Nic ClubO Mansfield Park, The Wanderer

IV. GENDER

1. Women were considered to be more susceptible to the corrupting influences of both theatre and novel

2. Is this really a concern about something else?

3. Does the ideology of femininity make them more responsive as consumers?

4. Does the ideology of femininity make them live more performative lives?

ARE THERE DISTINCTIONS WE SHOULD PRESERVE?

1. The body – the presence of actors – non-verbal communication – and the presence of the audience to the actors

2. Stage craft3. Visual spectacle4. The economies of both media5. Solitary vs. social media – novel could be

‘performed’ to an audience but theatre is necessarily social and often far from polite