Description
The Art of the Actress: Fashioning Identities provides a groundbreaking examination of how eighteenth-century actresses used clothing and fashion as tools for identity construction and professional advancement. Laura Engel investigates the complex relationship between theatrical performance, personal presentation, and social mobility during an era when actresses occupied a controversial but increasingly prominent position in European society.
Through detailed analysis of portraits, playbills, and historical documents, Engel demonstrates how actresses deliberately manipulated fashion to control their public images and navigate the social constraints placed upon women performers. The book explores how clothing functioned both on stage as costume and off stage as a means of establishing respectability and asserting agency. By connecting fashion history with theater studies and gender history, Engel reveals how these women used material culture to fashion multiple, strategic identities across different social contexts.
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