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Literature and Linguistics (Vol. 1 No. 2); Literature and Violence (Vol. 3 Nos. 1-2)

Women, Consumption and Popular Culture (Vol. 4 No. 1); Life, Community, and Ethics (Vol. 4. No. 2)

The Making of Barbarians in Western Literature (Vol. 5 No. 1); Chaos and Fear in Contemporary British Literature (Vol. 5 No. 2)

Taiwan Cinema before Taiwan New Wave Cinema (Vol. 6 No. 1); Catastrophe and Cultural Imaginaries (Vol. 6 No. 2)

Affective Perspectives from East Asia (Vol. 9 No. 2); Longing and Belonging (Vol. 10 No. 2, produced in collaboration with the European Network for Comparative Literary Studies)

Transatlantic Literary and Cultural Relations, 1776 to the Present (Vol. 11 No. 2). 

ABSTRACT

To illustrate the political, social and commercial significance of David Garrick’s Drury Lane theatre, this essay investigates the riot at The Chinese Festival (1755) and explores three major factors that merged to result in the ballet riot: first, English national animosity against France during the Seven Years’ War; second, English class warfare between the aristocratic fans of exoticism and the jingoistic mob; and third, Drury Lane Theatre’s competition not only with Covent Garden Theatre but also with the King’s Theatre. All these factors entangle with one another to influence the spectatorship and cultural production mode in eighteenth-century London theatres. From the perspective of cultural studies, this paper analyzes the theatre records and historical material to demonstrate that, in the case of the 1755 theatre riot, English patriotism was employed

KEY WORDS: the eighteenth century, London theatre, David Garrick, patriotism, class, spectatorship

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