The comedy and legacy of music-hall women 1880-1920: brazen impudence and boisterous vulgarity

Authored Book


Beale, S. 2020. The comedy and legacy of music-hall women 1880-1920: brazen impudence and boisterous vulgarity. Switzerland Palgrave MacMillian.
TypeAuthored Book
TitleThe comedy and legacy of music-hall women 1880-1920: brazen impudence and boisterous vulgarity
AuthorsBeale, S.
Abstract

This book explores the comedy and legacy of women working as performers on the music-hall stage from 1880–1920, and examines the significance of their previously overlooked contributions to British comic traditions. Focusing on the under-researched female ‘serio-comic’, the study includes six micro-histories detailing the acts of Ada Lundberg, Bessie Bellwood, Maidie Scott, Vesta Victoria, Marie Lloyd and Nellie Wallace. Uniquely for women in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, these pioneering performers had public voices. The extent to which their comedy challenged Victorian and Edwardian perceptions of women is revealed through explorations of how they connected with popular audiences while also avoiding censorship. Their use of techniques such as comic irony and stereotyping, self-deprecation, and comic innuendo are considered alongside the work of contemporary stand-up comedians and performance artists including Bridget Christie, Bryony Kimmings, Sara Pascoe, Shazia Mirza and Sarah Silverman.

KeywordsComedy studies
Research GroupTheatre Arts group
SeriesPalgrave Studies in Comedy
ISBN
Hardcover9783030479404
Electronic9783030479411
Paperback9783030479435
ISSN2731-4332
Electronic2731-4340
Edition1
PublisherPalgrave MacMillian
Place of publicationSwitzerland
Publication dates
Print05 Sep 2020
Online05 Sep 2020
Publication process dates
Deposited02 Nov 2020
Output statusPublished
Web address (URL)https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030479404
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47941-1
LanguageEnglish
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