Meeuwis, Michael (2013) Representative government : the “problem play,” quotidian culture, and the making of social liberalism. ELH, 80 (4). pp. 1093-1120. doi:10.1353/elh.2013.0046 ISSN 1080-6547.

Research output not available from this repository.

Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Late-Victorian social liberalism held that individuals should tune their thought and behavior to nationally standardized values; theater was central to the theorization, and to the practice, of this socialization of thinking. This theory was given its most precise articulation by Walter Bagehot’s concept of emulation. Theaters spearheaded both Bagehot’s theorization of social emulation and its real-world practice, giving rise to the so-called problem play of social critique and reform. In a new reading of the genre, through its unexpected origins in Dion Boucicault’s The Corsican Brothers (1852) to its mature form in T. W. Robertson’s M.P. (1870) and A.W. Pinero’s Trelawny of the “Wells” (1898), I demonstrate how problem plays created spectacles that invited audiences to emulate their examples, as well as how late-liberal political philosophy made use of this model of theatrical emulation.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts > English and Comparative Literary Studies
Journal or Publication Title:	ELH
Publisher:	The Johns Hopkins University Press
ISSN:	1080-6547
Official Date:	2013
Dates:	Date Event 2013 Published
Volume:	80
Number:	4
Page Range:	pp. 1093-1120
DOI:	10.1353/elh.2013.0046
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item