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EarlyModernista

@ellierycroft.bsky.social

1.1K followers 560 following 320 posts

Associate Professor in Early Modern Performance at University of Bristol: early modern bodies, PaR, gender. Formerly thinking about hair, now thinking about walking: also defining 'the Predramatic'. Teacher, cat-lover, writer, and mum, in varying measures.

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 2h

That's a really fascinating thought, James, thanks for your input.

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 2h

Yes, both really seem like jobbing playwrights. And of course the Dekker/Jonson row is fascinating given the high/low, popular/elite type issues at the heart of it.

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 3h

invested in early modern lived experience, Dekker - as both pamphleteer and dramatist - is a goldmine. So I think the question of what sort of value is absolutely key.

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 3h

I think it will be excellent to pull him out of the 'contemporaries' bracket and see what he produces! Fwiw, I think Middleton is 'better' (what do I mean by that - durable? Interpretatively open? Am I just trying to avoid saying 'transcending immediate cultural moment'?!). However as someone deeply

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 3h

Great questions!

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 3h

Yet Middleton seems as much more 'canonical' somehow - I mean, is he just better, or is genre snobbery partly in play?

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 3h

@starcrossed2018 Apologies - I see I just repeated the same thing as you about collaborations. But yes, I concur! And so often he's seen as the 'weak point' in collaborative plays I think - like, 'oh here's the rubbishy Dekker scene' - which is unfair!

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 3h

but don't know if we've fully theorised how or why (comic/satirical; concerned with lower/middle echelons of society; civic concerns; contemporary commentary? Is there more though?!).

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 3h

Thanks to you both! I totally agree about the sheer variety making him difficult to pin down. I also think the extent of his collaborations following an initial flurry of solo-authored works might have had a similar effect? It's strange because I think we can recognise something as 'Dekkerian'

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 4h

I feel a co-organised SAA/SRS seminar coming on 😉

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 4h

Does anyone know of any good scholarship on John Fletcher's The Elder Brother?

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 19h

Definitely agree that it's needed! He's emerging as one of my primary dramatists/cultural commentators for the walking book btw.

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 22h

Both he and Heywood so underrated I think! Dekker, especially, needs new collected editions of all his works.

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 23h

Reading @siobhankeenan.bsky.social's beautifully lucid prose in 'Travelling Players in Shakespeare's England' - such a pleasure #writergoals

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 23h

Getting really interested in Thoms Dekker - is there an early modernist with particular expertise on him?

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 1d

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 1d

What an experience. Huge thanks to my co-organiser, Helen Nixon, and to all of the women who participated - and who took much better pictures than me, shared here.

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 1d

Last night, as part of Eléonore Ozanne's Harvest Moon project, 11 Bristolian women joined groups all over the world to walk our 25 separate cities by moonlight. The biggest moon of the year was splendid - she was showing off frankly - and our laughter rang out across Bristol as we drifted through it

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 5d

Me too!

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 8d

My ever helpful research assistant, Connie, sitting across ALL of my reading.

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 8d

Anytime xx

EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 9d

Walking may be "the closest thing to the perfect exercise" but not everyone feels free to do it. Why do we walk the way we do? When did walking become exercise? Why do people have access walking spaces over others? What does night-walking signify? These are the kinds of questions I can help answer!

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EarlyModernista @ellierycroft.bsky.social · 9d

Would appreciate any opportunity to put my thinking into dialogue with fellow scholars! Am also available to speak on podcasts and other media about my work, which covers gender, embodiment, mobility & exercise in relation to early modern drama, but also the contemporary resonances of these topics.

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