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The Colleen Bawn in her element : sensation, spectatorship, meaning
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Smyth, Patricia (2022) The Colleen Bawn in her element : sensation, spectatorship, meaning. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, 49 (2). pp. 144-164. doi:10.1177/17483727221115932 ISSN 1748-3727.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/17483727221115932
Abstract
This essay considers the appeal of the ‘water cave’ scene in Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn to nineteenth-century spectators by focusing on its iconography and visual address. The written archive is of limited value on this question since contemporary commentators struggled to explain its popularity. Recent scholarly accounts have identified this and other sensation scenes as vehicles for eliciting spectator ‘affect’, meaning involuntary somatic responses, prompted in this case by the spectacle of physical danger. While this approach has been useful in seeking readings beyond those embedded in language and text, it has tended to confine the discussion to a narrow range of extreme affective states associated with anxiety and terror. This essay considers interpretations arising out of the ‘affective turn’ before proposing a new direction. Working across a range of images, I address the specific visual nature of the ‘water cave’ scene, drawing out a more subtle and multi-faceted set of ideas than those with which sensation drama is generally associated, and proposing an alternative reading to do with feminine power and transfiguration.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater P Language and Literature > PR English literature |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Boucicault, Dion, 1820-1890. The Colleen Bawn , Senses and sensation -- History -- 19th century , Visual communication , Melodrama , Sensationalism in literature -- 19th century | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 1748-3727 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | November 2022 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 49 | ||||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 144-164 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1177/17483727221115932 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | Posted ahead of print. Smyth, Patricia (2022) The Colleen Bawn in her element : sensation, spectatorship, meaning. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film . (In Press) jounal and Issue Number) pp. xx-xx. Copyright © 2022 (Copyright Holder). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. DOI: [DOI] Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 15 August 2022 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 15 August 2022 | ||||||||
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