Jensen, Oskar Cox (2019) Of Ships and Spectacles: Maritime Identity and the Politics of Authenticity in Regency London. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, 46 (2). pp. 136-160. ISSN 1748-3727
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This article considers three case studies – the first aqua-drama at Sadler's Wells in 1804, the naumachia in Hyde Park of 1814, and the launching of HMS Nelson at Woolwich, also in 1814 – in order to discuss maritime spectacle in Regency London. I identify an essentially political distinction between the representation of ships and the role of sailors, linked to wider questions of authenticity as understood by contemporary London audiences. I argue that the Thames riverscape itself contributed to Londoners' self-identification as nautically literate connoisseurs, unlikely to acclaim spectacles they perceived to be inauthentic. By this reading, the maritime spectacles of early nineteenth-century London constitute a misstep in a longer and more successful history of nautical theatre and melodrama, that remained fundamentally entangled with questions of democratic representation, the real versus the represented, and London's maritime identity.
Item Type: | Article |
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Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies |
Related URLs: | |
Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
Date Deposited: | 27 May 2021 00:10 |
Last Modified: | 30 Sep 2021 16:31 |
URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/80136 |
DOI: | 10.1177/1748372719851329 |
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