Subject to Change 11

Ann Mazur (University of Virginia)


“Props in Victorian Parlour Plays: The Periperformative Object”

Transformative potential of home theatricals. 

Creative use of props. Slaying a mouse with a poker. 

textual scholarship that dismiss objects forget that props aren’t just signifiers

they can become absorbed into the play action (Stauffer)

Can become part of the play’s cultural tradition

Henry II’s planting of seeds

props contain their past

Daniel Deronda: the diamond necklace

Sedgwick: letter is peri-performative, avoiding performative sentences

“I dare you” vs “not on my account” -- a changing of the nature of what is agreed

>> makes it more potent

you need the necklace for the letter to have its full effect

the return of the necklace is supernatural: she can tell she’s going to get it back

ogre’s head or beast’s head instructions: complex mesh and you can make it! 

e.g. Rumplestiltskin that involves a trap door!