Music hall & modernity the late-Victorian discovery of popular culture - Faulk, Barry J. (Ohio University Press, 2004)
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-236) and index
Introduction : the popular not the public -- Music hall : the middle class makes a subculture -- Camp expertise : Arthur Symons, music hall, and the defense of theory -- Spies and experts : Laura Ormiston Chant among late-Victorian professionals -- Tales of the culture industry : professional women, mimic men, and Victorian music hall -- "Spectacular" bodies : tableaux vivants at the Palace Theatre -- Conclusion : Cyrene at the Alhambra
The late-Victorian discovery of the music hall by English intellectuals marks a crucial moment in the history of popular culture. Music Hall and Modernity demonstrates how such pioneering cultural critics as Arthur Symons and Elizabeth Robins Pennell used the music hall to secure and promote their professional identity as guardians of taste and national welfare. These social arbiters were, at the same time, devotees of the spontaneous culture of "the people." In examining fiction from Walter Besant, Hall Caine, and Henry Nevinson, performance criticism from William Archer and Max Beerbohm