Travel and Drama in Early Modern England : The Journeying Play
- Submitting institution
-
The University of East Anglia
- Unit of assessment
- 25 - Area Studies
- Output identifier
- 182633403
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
-
-
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- ISBN
- 9781108557771
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- September
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This long-form output, of c110,000 words comprising twelve original essays and a substantive introduction, was developed through a period of sustained research undertaken over five years. Together the co-editors selected contributors and worked with them to refine topics. They each edited all essays, which were revised multiple times. Jowitt wrote a substantial chapter (c11,000 words) on William D’Avenant’s use of the meme of cultural encounter across his long career, spanning the 1630s until his death in 1668, and co-wrote the ambitious, genre-defining c10,000-word introduction. The editors also undertook equally all editorial work involved in the book’s production (copy-editing, proof-reading etc).
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Jowitt and McInnis are acknowledged experts on the relationship between travel and drama in early modern England, having each written a well-received monograph on the subject (Jowitt, 2003; McInnis, 2013). In 2013, they decided to collaborate to produce an ambitious collection of essays which, taken together, aimed to redefine the genre of ‘travel’ or ‘voyage’ drama in the light of recent work on theatre history, historians’ move away from Atlantic-world to global history, and important theories about transculturalism, transnationalism, and cosmopolitanism. The editors wanted their book to challenge what has traditionally been counted as travel and/or voyage drama, and to explore the ways, and whys, of how the genre has been defined.
The co-editors selected and approached contributors, identifying world-leading scholars and innovative new voices. They discussed the project’s scope, ambition, and the processes of investigation with each contributor, helping her/him to shape ideas concerning topics and arguments to be explored in an essay. This process ensured a mix between recognised travel drama (e.g. The Tempest) and fresh, non-canonical material that challenges traditional definitions (e.g. plays about domestic travel, or where travel and/or voyaging is used thematically). Contributors’ draft essays were commented on in detail multiple times by the editors, as part of an intensive process of revision and refinement. A substantial introduction, co-written by the editors, explored the relationship between travel writing, authority, and eye-witnessing, and how drama about travel negotiates this complex of ideas. The editors sought to differentiate ‘travel drama’ from ‘voyage drama’ and posited a new over-arching term ‘the journeying play’, placing this analysis in dialogue with early modern ‘lost plays’ to test its utility. By actively discussing these ideas with contributors as the collection developed, and sharing in-progress work, themes and connections between essays were allowed to emerge organically, suggesting new directions of study.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
