Cultural Materialism

It's Behind Us? British Pantomime in London's West End

by Simon Sladen

Delivered at conference 'The Heart of the West End' at Theatre Royal Haymarket, 25th March 2012.

In 2008 the Theatre Royal, Haymarket produced Treasure Island as its Christmas offering to the West End. Described by... more In 2008 the Theatre Royal, Haymarket produced Treasure Island as its Christmas offering to the West End. Described by the Independent as ‘posh panto’, Treasure Island, the ‘perennial panto favourite’ (Guardian), marked 120 years since pantomime ceased to be produced at the Theatre Royal and 200 years since the celebrated transfer of Covent Garden’s Mother Goose in 1808. During this 80 year period, the Haymarket became known as one of the ‘most popular venues for pantomime in the Victorian era’ (Encyclopaedia of Pantomime) and would only be eclipsed by the so-called Father of Modern Pantomime, Augustus ‘Druriolanus’ Harris in 1879 with his production of Bluebeard. Suddenly pantomime had a new home in Drury Lane, where it remained a popular feature until 1937.

However in 1948, post WWII, pantomime found yet another new spiritual home in London’s West End: the London Palladium, where it served its duty for 40 years until 1987’s Babes in Wood heralded the end, not only to the venue’s reign as the ‘Home of British Pantomime’, but to an almost constant presence of this peculiar British art form in the theatrical capital of the world.

The 1980s was an era of immense change in the United Kingdom’s theatrical landscape. Arts Council cuts hit the industry hard, whilst Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh appeared to govern the West End with their many musical products. Open ended runs, combined with an increase in international tourism, meant that pantomime was often no longer viable or deemed desirable; it may have been at the heart of British culture, but it was no longer at the heart of the West End.

This paper will explore the loss of pantomime in London’s West End, suggesting reasons for its disappearance, whilst also examining the circumstances surrounding the five West End pantomimes presented post-the Palladium’s Babes in the Wood of 1987/1988. Modes of production as well as pantomime and musical theatre’s susceptibility to standardization will also be considered as I seek to evaluate British pantomime’s position in an increasingly globalised theatrical marketplace.

How is a possession" me" or" not me"? Characterizing types and an antecedent of material possession attachment

by Susan Kleine

CFP: The Audience Through Time

by Christine Twite

A conference fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue around spectatorship, keynote Tracy C. Davis, http://theaudiencethroughtime.wordpress.com

Call For Papers: The Audience Through Time Conference

Keynote Speaker: Professor Tracy C. Davis, Barber... more Call For Papers: The Audience Through Time Conference

Keynote Speaker: Professor Tracy C. Davis, Barber Professor of Performing Arts, Northwestern University

Saturday December 3rd 2011

9am - 6.30pm (followed by drinks reception)

Arts Building, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End, E1 4NS

CFP Deadline: September 16th 2011

How have audiences changed through time? Can contemporary theatre spectatorship inform how we understand audiences throughout history? How does historiographic research on audiences relate to present cultures of spectatorship? Using theatre as the core, but not only, focus of discussion, this conference will consider spectatorship across history.

Aims:
- To institute an interdisciplinary dialogue around audiences and spectatorship, particularly in relation to theatre.
- To bring together those who specialise in historiographical audience research with scholars of the contemporary.
- To look at the cultural construction of the audience across history from a variety of viewpoints, including the literary text.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Tracy C. Davis
Tracy C. Davis is a specialist in performance theory, theatre historiography, and research methodology. She edits the book series Cambridge Studies in Theatre and Performance Theory.

Chairperson: Dr Bridget Escolme
Bridget Escolme researches and teaches historical theatre and its contemporary production, particularly early modern drama and the ways in which original and current staging practices produce space and subjectivity.

Examples Papers:
- The female spectator in the eighteenth-century theatrical space
- A "Classic repeat" Audience?: Ibsen's Ghosts or Those Who Return and contemporary cultures of spectatorship

If you have a paper which you'd like to be considered please read the following, put the required information into a word document, attach and send to theaudiencethroughtime@hotmail.co.uk by September 16th

* Please submit your abstracts (500 words maximum) with a 50 word summary of the abstract.
* Papers should be 20 minutes long, and will be followed by 10 minutes of questions.
* Powerpoint and other AV resources are available; please state clearly the technical requirements of your paper.
* Please include a biography (up to 50 words, including your contact website/email if you wish), your full name, title, area of research and institution of study.
* If you have any further questions, please do also contact us on the above email.
* Please also see our website, theaudiencethroughtime.wordpress.com. If you would like your details to be included on our website (such as personal blog, academia.edu profile etc) please send us any relevant information.

On-line registration for the conference will open in August, please check our website for more details.

All the best,
Anna Kretschmer and Christine Twite
English and Drama Department, Queen Mary, University of London
theaudiencethroughtime@hotmail.co.uk

http://theaudiencethroughtime.wordpress.com

The Chains of Semiosis: Semiotics, Marxism, and the Female Stereotypes in THE MILL ON THE FLOSS

by José Angel García Landa

Published in Papers on Language and Literature 27.1 (Edwardsville, Illinois, 1991).

This paper puts forward a theory of literary writing as a practice of ideological transformation. The example analyzed... more This paper puts forward a theory of literary writing as a practice of ideological transformation. The example analyzed is the representation of the sexes in George Eliot's novel THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, a representatoin which is intertextually mediated, metafictional, and transformatory, rather than merely "realistic" or spontaneous. This view of writing as a practice of material production in the intertextual field is theorized on the basis of V. N. Voloshinov's (or M. M. Bakhtin's) materialist linguistics, and of Peirce's semiotics. The methodological kinship between these researchers is asserted (as it was ignored in the 1980s, when this paper was written). The paper was partly reprinted in the Palgrave Macmillan Casebook on George Eliot's SILAS MARNER and THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, ed. Nahem Yousaf and Andrew Maunder (2002).

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Este artículo expone una teoría de la escritura artística como praxis de transformación ideológica. Como ejemplo se analiza la representación de los sexos en la novela de George Eliot, una representación que es intertextual, metaficcional y transformadora, más bien que meramente “realista” o espontánea. Esta concepción de la escritura como práctica de producción material sobre el campo de la intertextualidad se teoríza sobre la base de la lingüística materialista de Voloshinov (Bajtín) y la semiótica de Peirce; a la vez se señala el parentesco metodológico entre estos teorizadores, ignorado en los años 80 cuando se escribió este artículo. Este artículo ha sido recientemente reimpreso (sólo en su segunda mitad sobre George Eliot) en una selección de los mejores trabajos sobre dos novelas de George Eliot (THE MILL ON THE FLOSS and SILAS MARNER. Ed. Nahem Yousaf y Andrew Maunder. New Casebooks. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2002).