Gilbert and Sullivan: Gender, Genre, Parody

Carolyn Williams

Published by Columbia University Press 2010

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gender, Genre, Parody

Carolyn Williams

In the series Gender and Culture Series

https://doi.org/10.7312/will14804

Overview
Contents

About this book

Long before the satirical comedy of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, the comic operas of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were the hottest send-ups of the day's political and cultural obsessions. Gilbert and Sullivan's productions always rose to the level of social commentary, despite being impertinent, absurd, or inane. Some viewers may take them straight, but what looks like sexism or stereotype was actually a clever strategy of critique. Parody was a powerful weapon in the culture wars of late-nineteenth-century England, and with defiantly in-your-face sophistication, Gilbert and Sullivan proved that popular culture can be intellectually as well as politically challenging.

Carolyn Williams underscores Gilbert and Sullivan's creative and acute understanding of cultural formations. Her unique perspective shows how anxiety drives the troubled mind in the Lord Chancellor's "Nightmare Song" in Iolanthe and is vividly realized in the sexual and economic phrasing of the song's patter lyrics. The modern body appears automated and performative in the "Junction Song" in Thespis, anticipating Charlie Chaplin's factory worker in Modern Times. Williams also illuminates the use of magic in The Sorcerer, the parody of nautical melodrama in H.M.S. Pinafore, the ridicule of Victorian aesthetic and idyllic poetry in Patience, the autoethnography of The Mikado, the role of gender in Trial by Jury, and the theme of illegitimacy in The Pirates of Penzance. With her provocative reinterpretation of these artists and their work, Williams recasts our understanding of creativity in the late nineteenth century.

Author / Editor information

Carolyn Williams is professor of English at Rutgers University, where she teaches courses on Victorian literature, theater, and culture. She is the author of Transfigured World: Walter Pater's Aesthetic Historicism, as well as numerous essays and articles.

Reviews

An outstanding pick... this is a recommendation for any college-level course in Gilbert and Sullivan, and for readers who would receive a fine reinterpretation of their works and impact.

Joseph Bristow:
[A] triumphant cultural history.

Benjamin D. O'Dell:
this book will be an important reference point for future discussions of Gilbert and Sullivan, gender, and the Victorian stage.

Unmodified rapture should best describe the scholarly reponse to this exciting contribution to a broad swath of disciplines...

Josephine Lee:
Williams substantive study is all the more praiseworthy because her biting insights into gender and sexuality, sharpened through the lens of contemporary critical theory, are tucked within what could pass as a much more staid study of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Rich, challenging, irritating, inspiring, provocative, just what one wants in a new G&S study, this is a worthwhile albeit tough read.

A superb examination of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas... Highly recommended.Library Journal

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
1. Outmoding Classical Extravaganza, Englishing Opéra Bouffe Thespis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
2. Gender in the Breach Trial by Jury Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
3. English Magic, English Intoxication The Sorcerer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
4. “Never Mind the Why and Wherefore” The Parody of Nautical Melodrama in H.M.S. Pinafore Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
5. Recollecting Illegitimacy The Pirates of Penzance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
6. New Light on Changing Gender Norms Patience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
7. Transforming the Fairy Genres Women on Top in Iolanthe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
8. War Between the Sexes Princess Ida Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
9. Estrangement and Familiarity The Mikado Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
10. Mixing It Up Gothic and Nautical Melodrama in Ruddigore Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	274
11. The Past Is a Foreign Country The Yeomen of the Guard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	294
12. Imaginary Republicanism The Gondoliers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	312
13. Capitalism and Colonialism Utopia, Limited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
14. Continental Recollections The Grand Duke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	344
After Gilbert and Sullivan The Momentum of Parody Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	423
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	471
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 480
Illustrations
- Other: 76 illus.

eBook

Published: November 25, 2010
ISBN: 9780231519663