Re-gendering Comedy in the Works of Aphra Behn

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Through the works of Aphra Behn, I will track how the theatrical spaces of the Restoration were re-gendered through the physical introduction of female bodies and the textual espousal of comedy as a feminine genre. Recent scholarship suggests that within the restoration stage's complex system of power, authority and political influence was a deeply masculine pressure. By incorporating the material artefacts left from the playhouses - promptbooks, manuscripts and first-hand accounts - with a practical re-examination of Behn's comedies and the women within them, I will explore how the restoration stage inspired the genesis of female comedy.