The meanings of space in society and drama: perceptions of domestic life and domestic tragedy c.1550-1600

This thesis has two intimately related aims. It investigates socially-distinct perceptions of domestic life in a provincial society closely linked to London in the second half of the sixteenth century. It then demonstrates the difference which those perceptions make to individuals' responses to representations, specifically of households in the genre of domestic tragedy. The method is interdisciplinary: close analysis of testamentary and judicial sources is used to imaginatively construct the perceptions of theatre audiences. Wills and inventories are used in Chapter 2 to analyse the material composition of domestic space, and these sources make possible an understanding of domestic process, of the formation of identity, and of the expression of social distinction through the objects which were kept in each room of the house. Chapter 3 uses ecclesiastical court depositions to show how space was moralised in contemporary life, and how it formed a part of the strategic discourses of public morality through which individuals understood their actions. The coherence of this evidence, for the provincial centres of Kent, makes it possible to understand the relative meanings of objects and spaces, and therefore the internal logic of provincial society. Chapter 4 investigates the consumption of representations of domestic life, using the evidence for socially-distinct perceptions to construct different responses to the plays. It explores the mechanics of such representations, focusing on the meanings of stage properties, and upon audience members' conceptions of the moralised relationship between house and community. This analysis prioritises contemporary perceptions of dramatic productions, and insists upon a consideration of the divergent responses of heterogeneous audiences. It challenges less carefully historicised approaches to representations by demonstrating that it is only through an examination of the evidential context of historical sources that an understanding of the internal logic of societies (and therefore their perceptions and representations) can be reached.