Publikationen

Neuerscheinungen

Valentina Finger: Mirrors in Shakespeare and Early Modern English Drama: Power, Gender and the Magic of the Theatre. London 2026.

DOI: 10.5040/9781350535381

Mirrors in the early modern playhouse function as figures of theatricality, reflecting gender dynamics and challenging sovereign power, in this open-access study of their use as stage props and rhetorical devices in plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Combining approaches from literary studies and performance studies with extensive research into material history, Valentina Finger highlights the rich complexity of mirrors and acts of mirroring on the early modern stage. The case studies in this book traverse myths of monarchs and imperial mirrors in Richard II and Macbeth, explore acts of exemplary self-government and court politics in Edward I and Bussy D'Ambois, constitute cosmetic mirrors as canvases for feminine self-authorship in The Duchess of Malfi and The Devil's Charter and illuminate the interplay of scientific knowledge, magic and trick glasses in The Alchemist and A Game at Chess. Within this range of Shakespearean drama and lesser-studied plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries, each chapter examines political and literary history, material and visual culture, as well as gender and power dynamics. Focusing on the roles of mirrors as props and tropes in the early modern playhouse, this book contributes to our understanding of broader cultural, social and religious norms as they were debated in England around 1600.

Carolina Heberling: Zwischen Alleinherrschaft und kollektiver Leitung. Der Intendantenberuf in der Weimarer Republik am Beispiel der Bayerischen Staatstheater. Berlin/Boston 2026.

DOI:

Eine strenge Hierarchie mit einer mächtigen Person an der Spitze: Deutsche Theater sind noch immer stark auf die jahrhundertealte Figur des Intendanten ausgerichtet. Teile seiner heutigen Prägung bekam das Amt in den 1920er Jahren, als viele Hoftheater in die Hand des Staates übergingen und die „Kavaliersintendanten" – adelige Höflinge mit begrenzter Expertise – durch Berufsprofis ersetzt wurden. Am Beispiel der Bayerischen Staatstheater geht das Buch der Frage nach, wie sich das Berufsbild des Intendanten in der Weimarer Republik entwickelte und wo sich mit der Etablierung eines Künstlerrats als gemeinschaftlicher Leitungsform früh eine Alternative zum Modell des „Alleinherrschers" zeigte. Es wird untersucht, welche Personen das Amt anzog, wie diese sich an der Spitze des Theaters legitimierten und welche Idealbilder vom Theater an sie herangetragen wurden. In den Blick rücken dafür beispielhaft Clemens von Franckenstein, Victor Schwanneke und Karl Zeiß. Anhand ihrer Intendanzen lässt sich eine strukturelle Überforderung ablesen, die den Beruf seither begleitet und eine konsistente Amtsführung schon damals unmöglich machte, so eine zentrale These des Buchs. Aus historischer Perspektive betrachtet wird die Frage nach kollektiven Leitungsformen an heutigen Theatern umso drängender.

 

Benedetta Chizzolini: Between Cure and Control. Doctors, Convicts and Slaves in Tuscan and Papal Galleys (16th–18th Centuries). Berlin/Boston 2025.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111654133

Since antiquity, doctors have always been required to be "vigilant" (i.e., extremely attentive), particularly when it comes to any symptoms exhibited and/or complained of by the patient. As outlined in the Hippocratic Oath since antiquity, a doctor’s primary mission is to ensure the patient’s well-being and recovery, irrespective of their social status. However, loyalty to the patient was explicitly subordinated whenever the patient performed an action deemed suspicious or even detrimental to society’s best interests. The goal of this book is, therefore, to delve deeper into the multivalent role and attitude of physicians and surgeons as "experts" in how to interpret symptoms, and how this, in turn, influenced their relationship with their patients, especially when the latter were considered to be "dangerous individuals". This analysis does not seek to further explore Foucault’s concept of the "disciplinary" nature of medicine, but rather uses it as a starting point for analyzing the complex and, so to speak, "ambiguous" nature of the doctor-patient relationship in the early modern period, one which oscillated between cooperation and conflict. To deepen these aspects, this analysis will consider the role and tasks of a figure often neglected by historiography: the galley doctor.