Brett Wilson | College of William and Mary (original) (raw)
Restoration and 18th-century drama, early women writers, history of the novel, history of political thought.
Supervisors: Toni Bowers, John Richetti, Michael Gamer, and Margreta de Grazia
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National & Kapodistrian University of Athens
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Books by Brett Wilson
_A Race of Female Patriots_ argues that public-spirited women proliferated on the eighteenth-cent... more _A Race of Female Patriots_ argues that public-spirited women proliferated on the eighteenth-century British stage to catalyze an affective experience of political belonging, as dramatists imagined new forms of affiliation, allegiance, and loyalty suitable to the new British constitution established by the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Brett D. Wilson examines both staples of the repertory (_The Fair Penitent_, _Jane Shore_) and lesser-known plays (_Liberty Asserted_, _The Revolution of Sweden_, _Edward and Eleonora_) to define the parameters of a prevalent yet under-examined dramatic mode: “civic” dramas that use scenes of political strife and private distress to stage the fashioning of communities around women. Onstage, women act to benefit the public—crucially, Wilson argues, by infusing the commonwealth with sentimental ardor: public spirit. Playwrights like Nicholas Rowe, Catharine Trotter, John Dennis, and James Thomson make the female-centered unions they imagine into synecdoches for a British nation transformed from turmoil to harmony. Restoring to view key neglected texts that portray women who feel deeply as agents of inclusion and icons of civic virtue, _A Race of Female Patriots_ is a persuasive study of tragic drama at a time of great political change that yields new insight into the relation between women, feeling, and the public sphere.
Papers by Brett Wilson
… : Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660- …, Jan 1, 2008
In the years following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the stage became instrumental in the prop... more In the years following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the stage became instrumental in the propagation of Whig and Tory viewpoints. Playwrights and playgoers alike found in the theater an arena for political expression and partisan argumentation. While critics have explored the ...
Talks by Brett Wilson
_A Race of Female Patriots_ argues that public-spirited women proliferated on the eighteenth-cent... more _A Race of Female Patriots_ argues that public-spirited women proliferated on the eighteenth-century British stage to catalyze an affective experience of political belonging, as dramatists imagined new forms of affiliation, allegiance, and loyalty suitable to the new British constitution established by the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Brett D. Wilson examines both staples of the repertory (_The Fair Penitent_, _Jane Shore_) and lesser-known plays (_Liberty Asserted_, _The Revolution of Sweden_, _Edward and Eleonora_) to define the parameters of a prevalent yet under-examined dramatic mode: “civic” dramas that use scenes of political strife and private distress to stage the fashioning of communities around women. Onstage, women act to benefit the public—crucially, Wilson argues, by infusing the commonwealth with sentimental ardor: public spirit. Playwrights like Nicholas Rowe, Catharine Trotter, John Dennis, and James Thomson make the female-centered unions they imagine into synecdoches for a British nation transformed from turmoil to harmony. Restoring to view key neglected texts that portray women who feel deeply as agents of inclusion and icons of civic virtue, _A Race of Female Patriots_ is a persuasive study of tragic drama at a time of great political change that yields new insight into the relation between women, feeling, and the public sphere.
… : Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660- …, Jan 1, 2008
In the years following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the stage became instrumental in the prop... more In the years following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the stage became instrumental in the propagation of Whig and Tory viewpoints. Playwrights and playgoers alike found in the theater an arena for political expression and partisan argumentation. While critics have explored the ...