Author: Anne Greenfield, Department of English, Valdosta State University - Author's Personal Website, Google Scholar

Contents:

	A Note on Dates, Titles, Quotations, and Style
	Acknowledgments
	Chapter 1: Introduction
	Chapter 2: Sexual Violence on the Restoration Stage
	Chapter 3: Orientalist Depictions of Rape
	Chapter 4: From Chastity Stolen to Chastity Lost
	Afterword
	Works Cited
	Index

Description: »This book examines one of the most pervasive and successful dramatic tropes of the Restoration and early eighteenth century: sexual violence.
During this sixty-year span, there were over fifty tragic and tragi-comedic productions that showcased rape and/or attempted rape—a remarkable number that was unprecedented in English dramatic history. Rape was not merely depicted more frequently during the Restoration, but it was also placed at the center of more plots, given more pathetic emphasis, and even staged more centrally. Restoration dramatists were the first to revolve routinely entire plots around the rapes of their innocent heroines, to give powerful voices to these heroines’ post-rape, and to imbue their sexually violent scenes with new and attention-getting staging techniques, like discovery scenes. As this book argues, sexual violence emerged at this time as a highly flexible dramatic trope that could be used to illustrate terrifying political scenarios, to elicit extreme pathos in audiences, and to demonstrate the bearing lost chastity had on social stability. It is precisely the rich, multi-faceted appeal of these productions—politically, sexually, visually, and culturally—that explains the popularity and significance of this exceptional dramatic trope on the English stage.« (Source: Taylor & Francis Online)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of England / Stuart persiod, Georgian era | Literature: English literature / Restoration literature | Literature: Fiction about rape | Sex and the law: Rape / History of rape