Of Ships and Spectacles: Maritime Identity and the Politics of Authenticity in Regency London

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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Abstract

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
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
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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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