"We are learning much from frequent attendance at the theatres": The influence of 19th - century sexual problems plays on Michael Field's

凯瑟琳·布拉德利(Katharine Bradley，1846-1914)和伊迪丝·库珀(Edith Cooper，1862-1913)是笔名迈克尔·菲尔德(Michael Field)的作者，他们一生出版了27部诗集。然而，尽管学术界对菲尔德的诗歌作品的兴趣与日俱增，但“对戏剧的批评性研究相对较少”(塞恩和帕雷霍-瓦迪洛，2009：p.48)。事实上，目前还没有对菲尔德戏剧作品进行全面的现代批评研究。此外，菲尔德的戏剧在很大程度上被视为其诗歌的参照物(见：弗雷泽[2006]和塞恩[2007])，或被挖掘成与布拉德利和库珀对性别和性的非正统方法有关的传记材料(见：比克尔[2006]和柯比[2017])。至关重要的是，这些方法忽视了布拉德利和库珀参与的多个当代戏剧网络。两人观看了19世纪末伦敦舞台上许多最经典的表演，从亨里克·易卜生的《幽灵》(1891)到奥斯卡·王尔德的《理想丈夫》(1895)。他们还与当时许多顶尖的剧作家进行了交流。例如，王尔德在《悲惨的玛丽》(1890年)中为菲尔德提供了人物塑造方面的建议。此外，尽管菲尔德的戏剧没有一部是公开演出的--除了《记忆的问题》(1893)--但布拉德利和库珀打算让他们的许多作品“踏板”(Bristow 2019，p.124)。正如杰基·布拉顿(Jacky Bratton，2003)所说，维多利亚时代的观众依赖于一种“剧场内”(p.43)的意义创造过程，包括引用广泛的当代戏剧网络，这种意图强化了他们与更广泛的维多利亚时代戏剧文化接触的重要性。为了解决学术上的这一差距，我的DPhil试图将菲尔德的戏剧置于更广泛的戏剧背景中。我的主要关注点是19世纪的社会问题剧，特别是易卜生的作品。我将专注于他们19世纪90年代的诗剧--布拉德利和库珀最专注于为伦敦舞台制作作品的时期(布里斯托，2019年)。此外，由于女性性欲是19世纪80年代/90年代社会问题剧的“强迫症”(Eltis：P.114)，我将主要分析菲尔德对社会越轨女性角色的描绘。目前的菲尔德批评主要强调这些人物的社会颠覆性，我将超越这些批评，更多地关注布拉德利和库珀引用可识别的易卜生主题和表演惯例，如何让他们颠覆和批评当代社会问题剧的挑衅性性别政治，以及他们的诗歌借鉴的Fin-de-Sie‘cle诗歌传统。为了做到这一点，我将大量利用大英图书馆收集的布拉德利和库珀的信件和日记，以及博德莱恩图书馆自己的多本未出版的菲尔德诗剧草稿。本研究是对这一时期已有的女性戏剧创作研究的有益拓展。安娜·法卡斯(Anna Farkas，2019)展示了多萝西·雷顿(Dorothy Leighton)的泰尔扎·弗莱明(Thyrza Fleming，1895)是如何使用可识别的易卜生主题来批评这两个父权制结构的当代男性剧作家。然而，关于19世纪女性对易卜生的反应的最新学术研究只考察了植根于当代背景和女权主义问题的自然主义戏剧作品(参见：希尔[2018]和法卡斯)。菲尔德的诗剧在风格上和形式上都与易卜生的自然主义保持着距离，因此为女性对19世纪80年代/90年代的性问题戏剧的反应提供了重要的见解，涉及更广泛的戏剧体裁和文学形式。鉴于戏剧是19世纪消费最多的艺术媒介(Bratton：p.40)，更好地理解易卜生的文化影响有助于对各种文学和非文学媒介上的当代女权主义话语进行跨学科的调查。

Throughout their lifetimes, Katharine Bradley (1846-1914) and Edith Cooper (1862-1913), the writers behind the pseudonym Michael Field, published over twenty-seven verse-dramas. However, although there is growing academic interest in Field's poetic works, "there are relatively few critical studies of the dramas" (Thain and Parejo-Vadillo, 2009: p.48). Indeed, there is no modern full-length critical study of Field's dramatic works. Moreover, Field's dramas have largely been treated as reference points for their poetry (see: Fraser [2006] and Thain [2007]) or mined for biographical material pertaining to Bradley and Cooper's unorthodox approach to gender and sexuality (see: Bickle [2006] and Kirby [2017]). Crucially, these approaches ignore the multiple contemporary dramatic networks in which Bradley and Cooper participated. The pair watched many of the late 19th-century London stage's most canonical performances, from Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts (1891) to Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband (1895). They also communicated with many of their day's leading dramatists. Wilde, for instance, advised Field on characterisation in The Tragic Mary (1890). Furthermore, although none of Field's dramas were publicly performed - excepting A Question of Memory (1893) - Bradley and Cooper intended for many of their works to "tread the boards" (Bristow 2019, p.124). This intention reinforces the importance of considering their engagement with wider Victorian theatre culture since, as Jacky Bratton (2003) argues, Victorian audiences relied on an "intra-theatrical" (p.43) process of meaning making, involving the citation of a broad network of contemporary dramas. In order to address this gap in scholarship, my DPhil seeks to situate Field's dramas in their wider theatrical context. My primary focus would be upon 19th-century social problem drama, particularly Ibsen's work. I will focus upon their 1890s verse-dramas - the period when Bradley and Cooper were most intensely fixated on producing work for the London stage (Bristow, 2019). Furthermore, as female sexuality was the "obsession" (Eltis: p.114) of 1880s/90s social problem plays, I will predominantly analyse Field's depictions of socially transgressive female characters. Moving beyond current Field criticism, which mainly emphasises these characters' social subversiveness, I will focus more upon how Bradley and Cooper's citation of recognisable Ibsenian motifs and performance conventions allowed them to subvert and critique the provocative gender politics of both contemporary social problem dramas as well as the Fin-de-Sie'cle poetic traditions that their verse draws upon. To do this, I will draw heavily upon the British Library's extensive collection of Bradley and Cooper's letters and diaries in addition to the Bodleian Library's own multiple unpublished draft copies of Field's verse-dramas. This research valuably extends upon existing scholarship on female playwriting in this period. Anna Farkas (2019) illustrates how Dorothy Leighton's Thyrza Fleming (1895) used recognisable Ibsenian motifs to critique both patriarchal structures as contemporary male playwrights. However, most recent scholarship on 19th-century female responses to Ibsen only examines naturalistic dramatic works, grounded in contemporary settings and feminist issues (see: Hill [2018] and Farkas). Field's verse-dramas are stylistically and formally distanced from Ibsen's naturalism, therefore providing important insights into female responses to 1880s/90s sexual problem plays across a broader array of theatrical genres and literary forms. Given drama was the most consumed artistic medium of the 19th-century (Bratton: p.40), greater understanding of Ibsen's cultural influence aids essential inter-disciplinary investigations into contemporary feminist discourses across a variety of literary and non-literary mediums.