The Absence of America

Reviews / Votes

Gavin Hollis's interrogation of the presence of America on the London stage is deeply engaging, drawing on a large body of early modern theatre and employing several lenses, including gender, sexuality and race, to develop his convincing arguments ... It contains many beautiful illustrations, including reproductions of Theodor de Bry and Inigo Jones, and its structure of clearly signposted and digestible parts ensures that this text - full of detail and vivid imagery - is easily navigable. Hollis has made a perceptive new departure on a topic that has in recent years, as he acknowledges, stagnated. * Misha Ewen, History * This is a book that has been waiting to be written. Deeply researched and clearly organized, it draws surprising connections between English antitheatricalism and New World colonialism, and discovers in early modern dramatic literature a sharp critique of incipient westward imperialism. ... Hollis's book, then, does much to reveal the presence of America on the early modern English stage. What I appreciated most about this book was its breadth of reference. * Jeremy Lopez, Renaissance Quarterly * Hollis's study is to be recommended and makes a significant intervention in the field. It includes careful close readings of sometimes neglected dramatic writing and presents an insightful overview of the interplay between the early modern theatre and the social and economic concerns of the period. * Andrew J. Power, Modern Language Review * This is a book that has been waiting to be written. Deeply researched and clearly organized, it draws surprising connections between English antitheatricalism and New World colonialism, and discovers in early modern dramatic literature a sharp critique of incipient westward imperialism ... Hollis's book, then, does much to reveal the presence of America on the early modern English stage. What I appreciated most about this book was its breadth of reference. In the table of contents alone we find a more eclectic range of dramatic texts than is ordinary for a monograph in this field. * Jeremy Lopez, Renaissance Quarterly * The Absence of America stands out as one of the past year's most critically sophisticated studies ... the series will quickly establish itself as the home of our field's most innovative scholarship on issues of space, place, and environment. * Kevin Curran, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *