Ebook: The Changeling: The State of Play

This collection of original essays on Middleton and Rowley’s unsettling revenge tragedy The Changeling represents key new directions in criticism and research. The 13 chapters fall into six groups focusing on questions of space, theology, collaboration, disability both mental and physical, and performance both early modern and contemporary: each represents an aspect of the state of the art in criticism of early modern drama and together they address central issues, notably tragedy, gender, and violence.
The introduction situates the chapters in relation to The Changeling’s critical and theatrical history, and the bibliography is designed to help readers develop their understanding of the field and pursue further possibilities for analysing the play. With contributors ranging from highly regarded critics to emerging scholars drawn from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Switzerland, the collection equips readers to engage with a variety of critical approaches to the play, moving a long way beyond the last century’s tendency to treat Middleton as ‘the early modern Ibsen’, to ignore Rowley, and to focus almost wholly on the castle plot – in particular the relationship of Beatrice-Joanna and de Flores – at the expense of the hospital plot.