The Colonial Public and the Parsi Stage

The Making of the Theatre of Empire (1853-1893)
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-030-65838-0
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 451 g

Reihe: Transnational Theatre Histories

The Colonial Public and the Parsi Stage is the first comprehensive study of the Parsi theatre, colonial South and Southeast Asia’s most influential cultural phenomenon and the precursor of the Indian cinema industry. By providing extensive, unpublished information on its first actors, audiences, production methods, and plays, this book traces how the theatre—which was one of the first in the Indian subcontinent to adopt European stagecraft—transformed into a pan-Asian entertainment industry in the second half of the nineteenth century. Nicholson sheds light on the motivations that led to the development of the popular, commercial theatre movement in Asia through three areas of investigation: the vernacular public sphere, the emergence of competing visions of nationhood, and the narratological function that women served within a continually shifting socio-political order. The book will be of interest to scholars across several disciplines, including cultural history, gender studies, Victorian studies, the sociology of religion, colonialism, and theatre.

Winner of the Theatre Library Association George Freedley Memorial Award Special Jury Prize. 

Shortlisted for the TaPRA David Bradby book prize. 

Finalist for the American Society for Theatre Research Barnard Hewitt Award. 

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nicholson, Rashna Darius

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: Parsi compradors and the public sphere.- Chapter 2: Social reform, law-making and the origins of the Parsi theatre.- Chapter 3: Corporeal discipline.- Chapter 4: Science, secular mythology and the professionalization of the Parsi theatre.- Chapter 5: The expansion of the Parsi theatre.- Chapter 6: The reformers in need of reforming.- Chapter 7: Race-thinking and the parsi social drama.

Über Autor(innen)

Rashna Darius Nicholson is Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Hong Kong. She has published works on colonial and postcolonial South Asian performance, theatre historiography, and cultural development.