"""Fair Montague"" or ""Ill-beseeming beast"": Breeches performance on the American stage, 1800-1869"

Vigorous scholarly interest in gender studies, women's history and feminist theory in the 1980s and 1990s has generated a vast amount of recent material on cross-dressing. Yet, despite cross-dressing's present favor within academia, a paucity of historical analysis exists regarding perhaps the most celebrated of all theatrical transvestites: the nineteenth-century American breeches actress. Established as a popular convention during the English Restoration, the practice of breeches performance reached its peak in America during the first half of the nineteenth century as actresses donned doublets and hose, tunics and tights on a regular basis in theatres throughout the country. Regardless of the American breeches performer's ubiquitous appeal, however, many basic histories of the American theatre ignore this convention; the history that has been written about the cross-dressed actress consists largely of a discussion of her as a sexual object.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Theatre

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Mullenix, Elizabeth Reitz

Contributors dc:contributor

• Davis, Peter A.

• History, United States
• Women's Studies
• Theater

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1995 Mullenix, Elizabeth Reitz

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9624444
(UMI)AAI9624444

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22709