Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 219-234).

The emergence of the New Woman in the 1890s was the result of a broad spectrum of feminist demands: equal advantages with men in education, entrance into "male" professions, and a share in the government of the country. Women's desire for personal freedom led to the removal of conventional restrictions with regard to dress, manners, and modes of living and to a rebellion against inequalities in marriage and double standards of morality. Within the theatre community, bold new patterns of thought developed out of a growing discontent with outworn forms. The New Drama and the New Woman became inseparable in the public mind, and socially aware dramatists attempted to create a contemporary heroine who would reflect the way modern woman was perceived. The first chapter, "Relics of the Past," documents legal and social changes in woman's status prior to 1900 and reveals how the 19th century woman was held back, not only by men claiming educational and political advantages by virtue of male superiority, but by other women who fought against any change to well-defined sex roles, and by her own reluctance to free herself from conventional patterns. The second chapter, "Removal of Ancient Landmarks," is concerned with women in the creative arts who seized the opportunities for female emancipation that life in the artistic community promised, particularly to those in the theatre. The third chapter, "Treading on Dangerous Ground," links the impact of Ibsen on British drama with the new breed of actresses who were willing to represent the New Woman on stage and to replace the feminine ideal with their defiant portrayals of selfhood. The next three chapters explore dramatic images of the New Woman as she was depicted in plays written for the London stage in the 1890s. In Chapter IV, "Shall We Forgive Her?," the former "fallen" woman of fiction and melodrama, now updated to the "Woman with a past," demonstrates the extent to which prior sexual misdemeanours make her a social outcast, even if the playwright does not condemn her to an untimely death, insanity, or suicide. Chapter V, "New Lamps for Old," deals with the "advanced" woman who is either aggressive in courtship or chooses a career over marriage, overturns parental authority, engages in activities formerly reserved for males, and often talks and dresses like a man. By pushing against conventional boundaries which define woman's intellectual and moral territory, she seeks to overthrow the patriarchal system and to upset the double standard. In Chapter VI, "A Modern Eve," another aspect of the New Woman manifests in the married heroine who attempts to establish greater freedom for herself within the old patterns of respectability yet must face the psychological pressures which tend to keep women in their traditional place. Throughout the decade, proponents of the New Drama allowed the heroine to express her own mind as a necessary step towards selfhood. Conservative playwrights clung to legal marriage and most assumed that a woman's role was decreed by Nature and was basically unchangeable. More progressive playwrights advocated free union and accepted the premise that freedom is attained only when both sexes are released from bondage to old ideals. / Graduate

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 C65 / Master of Arts

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-229).

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

Catherine ('Kitty') Clive (1711-1785) was the most famous singer-actress of mideighteenth century London, and one of the first women whom Drury Lane managers sought to popularize specifically as a singer. Drawing on theories of star construction in cinema, this thesis explores how the public persona of Mrs Clive 'composed' the music she sang. A key ingredient in star production is the wide-ranging dissemination of the star's image. The first chapter explains how the mid-eighteenth star was produced, outlining the period equivalents to what film scholars consider the sources of modern stardom: promotion, publicity, criticism and the work. This last means of star production is considered according to period traditions of comic writing, acting and spectatorship. These activities were part of the practice, begun in the Restoration, of creating a 'line' or metacharacter to fit the skills, reputation and unique acting mannerisms of principal players. The second chapter examines the vehicle of Mrs Clive's initial success, ballad opera. Ballad opera brought to the London stage the musical and discursive traditions of the street ballad singer, who typically communicated with audiences directly through indigenous, popular tunes. Direct address and native pedigree were to remain key elements in Mrs Clive's music, regardless of the genre she was singing. Chapters 3 to 5 trace three distinct phases in Mrs Clive's star production. Chapter 3 studies her promotion by Henry Carey, who taught her distinctive vocal techniques ('natural' singing; mimicry of opera singers) and supplied a sophisticated ballad-style repertory of which she was the chief exponent, 1728-32. Through Mrs Clive, Carey promoted his music and convictions - song in 'sublimated ballad style', the attractiveness of native traditions, female rights - and these became hallmarks of the Clive persona. Chapter 4 considers Henry Fielding's Clive publicity in his musical comedies and writings for her, 1732-6. Initially, he vivified the impudent nymph of her first 1729 mezzotint through stage characters, songs and epilogues. The criticism she drew for her refusal to join 1733-4 Drury Lane actors' rebellion forced him to re-invent Mrs Clive as a 'pious daughter'. In order to galvanize support for her, he broadened his publicity and made her an icon of conservative patriotic values and an enemy of Italian opera. Chapter 5 investigates Mrs Clive's management of her own image in her 1736 battle to retain the lead role in The Beggar's Opera. After her triumph, the duties of her new writer James Miller were simply to reflect audience perception of her. Chapters 6 and 7 analyse how the Clive persona, now rooted in public fantasy, shaped her two most important 'high style' musical roles, first in Thomas Arne's Comus, and then in Handel's Samson. Chapter 6 shows how the themes and musical procedures typical of the Clive persona were wedded to Milton's Comus, which then became the imaginative touchstone for a 'Comus' environment at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Chapter 7 examines her history as mediator of, and collaborator with, Handel, and shows how Handel's conceptualization of Dalilah in Samson mirrored that of Arne's Euphrosyne in Comus. Chapter 8 describes her ascendancy into 'polite society' through her friendship with Horace Walpole, and summarizes the means by which Mrs Clive's talents and audience perception of her shaped the works she performed.

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