Cosmetics In Shakespearean And Renaissance Drama

This is the only comprehensive and in-depth study of cosmetic culture and its visual representation on the Renaissance stage. This original study examines how the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries dramatize the cultural preoccupation with cosmetics. Farah Karim-Cooper analyzes contemporary tracts that address the then contentious issue of cosmetic practice and identifies a 'culture of cosmetics', which finds its visual identity on the Renaissance stage. The book also examines cosmetic recipes and their relationship to drama as well as to the construction of early modern identities. This book will help readers to understand that the common image patterns they identify in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries are part of a cultural preoccupation, rather than a dramatist's individual style. The book contains rare illustrations that shed further light on this unique subject.

Book Details

ISBN: 9780748619931
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Publication Date: 11 July 2006
Format: Hardback
Language: English
Pages: 221 p.