While writers of the Victorian era were free to address contemporary social
issues, playwrights were forced to contend with government censorship that ostensibly
discouraged them from debating politically controversial topics. An adjunct of the Lord
Chamberlain's Office, the Examiner of Plays was responsible for censoring morally and
politically sensitive material, giving this individual tremendous influence over the
English stage. My dissertation, Dramatic Anxieties: William Bodham Donne, Censorship
and the Victorian Theatre, 1849-18 74, focuses on the career of one dramatic censor,
William Bodham Donne (1807-82).
Throughout his tenure as Examiner (1849-74), Donne controlled the written
content of every play performed in every theatre in England. His was a position of
remarkable cultural and social influence, offering him the opportunity to shape the
performed drama, and thereby the attitudes of those who attended it. This study
examines Donne's censorship of dramatists' attempts to treat in a serious manner such
political and social issues as Anglo-Jewish emancipation, Chartism, the repeal of the
Com Laws, prison reform, and the condition of the working classes. I demonstrate that to
evaluate the cultural impact of dramatic censorship in the Victorian period requires an
understanding of the ongoing tension between Donne and the playwrights who, despite
the professional ignominy that accompanied censorship, often struggled to address the
political and social issues of their time. The relationship between Victorian playwrights
and the Examiner involves a cultural dialectic that negotiates the boundaries of a licensed public space. In exposing the explicit and implicit pressures which one such Examiner
brought to bear on dramatists, this study begins to uncover what is still a largely
unexplored feature of Victorian theatre history. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/16245 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Bell, Robert |
| Contributors | Ferns, John, English |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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