Inaug.-Diss.--Kiel. / Vita.

Thesis--Kiel. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (4th and 5th prelim. p. ).

Thesis--Halle-Wittenberg. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Halle-Wittenberg. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.-Diss.--Kiel. / Vita.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Bonn. / Bibliogr. p. 228-240.

This is a comprehensive critical and theatrical study of the nineteen plays of Susanna Centlivre (16691723). After an initial chapter that examines the work of three women dramatists active in the years 1695-1700, the seven following chapters are each devoted to between one and four of Mrs. Centlivre's plays. The order of treatment is chronological, but most space is allotted to the three major plays, The Busie Body (1709), The Wonder (1714-), and A Bold Stroke for Wife (1718). Literary concerns such as plot, structure, and character are considered, as well as theatrical qualities such as pace, timing, and tension. No uniformity of treatment is attempted, however, and such aspects of each play are discussed as seem most appropriate. New primary material includes the manuscript epilogues for a private performance of The Garriester; the original receipt for Curll's payments to Mrs. Centlivre; the Advice from Parnassus; and the prompt-books of The Wonder. But more significant than this new material is the study's theatrical emphasis: its analysis of particular scenes to bring out their theatrical qualities, and the reconstruction of the staging of The Busie Body and filar-Plot (1710). The study's conclusion recognizes the essentially theatrical nature of Mrs. Centlivre's dramatic art, and reconstructs the "typical" Centlivre play from exaJiples drawn from her most characteristic collieries. Gverall, the study combines critical enquiry into the "art" of a dramatist's oeuvre with a historical investigation of its theatrical environment. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Helen Burke, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 30, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 54 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Halle-Wittenberg. / Cover title. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Susanna Centlivre, active in the post Restoration Theater, wrote nineteen plays from 1700 to 1723. A few of her plays were popular until 1900, but thereafter fell into limbo. By studying three of her plays, The Perjur’d Husband, The Busy Body, and The Wonder, A Woman Keeps a Secret, one can decide whether she can receive the classification of a protofeminist. This topic is important in helping to trace the evolution of women’s writing, and their movement toward the development in the novel. One must understand the issues involved for women writers as they struggled for recognition in the field of literature. Centlivre’s history prior to 1700 remains shadowy. Her early life is oft repeated with little or no substantiation of the facts. The study of situations and characters in her plays reveal attitudes of the interactions between men and women. The ideas about forced marriages and paternal attitudes toward children reveal themselves through both comedy and sorrow. Though Centlivre married three times no children came from those marriages; the plays she wrote reflected the manners of those times. Assigning the arbitrary label of protofeminist or feminist to Centlivre at this time might place her into a genre from which she could not escape. She should receive the same treatment as any male writer: a fair and balanced approach to her words based on equality between the sexes. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English.