Public Spectacles in Restoration England: The Theatricality of the Political and the Birth of Celebrity Culture
Abstract
The jigsaw puzzle of the late Stuart period comprised a myriad of pieces, ranging from the advent of women actors to the emergence of Whig and Tory ideologies. Based on contemporary documents, literary works and written sources of a private nature, such as the Declaration of Breda, Aphra Behn's The Feigned Courtesans and The Diary of Samuel Pepys, this paper explores some public spectacles which shaped popular tastes, opinions and attitudes of late seventeenth-century English society.
Employed as powerful tools of mass manipulation by the King's state apparatus, magnificent royal rituals, gruesome public executions and witty dramas with political subtexts had a powerful indoctrinating effect on the minds and souls of the objects involved. Drawing on Guy Debord and Michel Foucault, the paper offers a glimpse into the idiosyncrasies of the spectacular Restoration propaganda machine, as well as spotlighting the emerging phenomenon of celebrity cult.