The visual life of Romantic theater, 1780-1830

The Visual Life of Romantic Theater examines the dynamism and vibrancy of stage spectacle and its impact in an era of momentous social upheaval and aesthetic change.

Situating theatrical production as key to understanding visuality ca. 1780-1830, this book places the stage front and center in Romantic scholarship—a field in a period long defined by its focus on poetic poetry—by reenvisioning traditional approaches to artistic and social production.

How, it asks, did dramaturgy and stagecraft influence aesthetic and sociopolitical concerns?

How does a focus on visuality expand our understanding of the historical experience of theatergoing?

In what ways did stage performance converge with visual culture beyond the theater?

How did extra-theatrical genres engage with theatrical sight and spectacle?

Finally, how does a focus on dramatic vision change the way we conceive of Romanticism itself?

The volume’s essays by emerging and established scholars provide exciting and suggestive answers to these questions, along with a capacious conception of Romantic theater as a locus of visual culture that reached well beyond playhouse walls.