Displacing victorian womenmid-nineteenth century popular drama and the representation of female identity

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the representation of female identity in the popular theatre of the mid-nineteenth century in England. We focus on the 1860s as a decisive decade for the latter feminist movements of the fin-de-siècle in England, thus examining the so-called ‘Woman Question’ that expressed the period’s anxieties towards women’s civil and political rights. This thesis turns to the popular theatre and entertainment of London during the 1860s because of its complex system of elements that go far beyond the represented on stage; as we shall suggest, the drama of the mid-century worked as an effective social manipulator, perpetuating and spreading stereotypes amongst the British citizens. Furthermore, we propose to understand Victorian popular drama as vehicle for virtual travel, a mechanism of displacement that allows the theatregoer to go on a journey, not physically, but with his or her mind. As we shall contend, this process of displacement affects the viewer’s self-position and forces a situation of self-scrutiny or re-evaluation of self. In light of a rapidly changing society, the mid-Victorians sought to understand their position within and without the nation. For this reason, attending a play or visiting an exhibition in the city of London, soon became a way of experimenting with both the familiar and the strange. Said experience would decisively influence their own opinions and position, and ultimately, their identity. Additionally, this thesis contributes to the existing definitions of displacement and proposes to conceptualize it as an internal process of change by which the individual is capable of self-scrutiny. Displacement is usually linked to feeling lost or ‘out of place’; thus, we argue that for some mid-Victorian women, being displaced meant not fitting into the femininity canon of the period. Consequently, we refer to displaced women when we scrutinize those who felt out of the ‘right’ place or sphere, and who continued to question and destabilize what it meant to be a woman. This thesis performs an interdisciplinary analysis and follows a heterogeneous list of disciplines, such as women’s studies, cultural studies, spatial studies, and theatre history. It also addresses studies in travel literature to understand women’s physical and virtual mobility. We have focused on the collection of the manuscripts of plays performed in London during the 1860s, stored in the Lord Chamberlain’s Catalogue of Plays at the British Library, as well as on other printed copies relevant to our study. Additionally, we have explored Victorian performance culture beyond the dramatic text, taking into account other forms of mid-Victorian London entertainment such as images and records of nineteenth-century exhibitions and memorabilia. Some of these databases are the digital collections of the British Library and the Senate House Library in London, the Victorian and Albert’s Theatre and Performance Archives, and the British Newspaper Archive. The results of our study indicate a plurality of female voices and identities represented in London during the 1860s. On stage, the physical mobility of women usually serves the purpose of representing female ‘out-of-placedness’ in the public spaces, with representations of male dominated spaces and colonial and warring areas where the female character is found distressed or in danger. On the other hand, the fictional women represented on stage during the 1860s further challenge feminine boundaries of the period. Thus, we accompany the female characters in their journeys through domesticity and the eventual questioning of female purpose. Straying from the domestic ideology of the era, the most transgressive female characters —including the ‘fast girl’ and the ‘girl of the period’— will contest the definitions of femininity and further defend a plural conception of ‘woman’. In the end, this thesis remarks the importance of Victorian theatre as vehicle for questioning female identities, exploring alternatives, and providing a space for transformation.