Professor Barbara Ravelhofer

Research

Ravelhofer’s work investigates performance, print, and memory across Europe, with particular attention to court spectacle, editing practices, and transmission.

Early Modern Theatre

Ravelhofer examines theatre and performance in early modern England, with particular emphasis on the Stuart court masque, Caroline drama, and the relationship between performance, politics, and power. Her work combines literary analysis with archival research to reconstruct how theatre functioned within the social, ceremonial, and political life of the early modern court, while situating English drama within wider European traditions of spectacle and performance.

Select publications:

  • English Historical Drama, 1500-1660: Forms Outside the Canon, edited with T. Grant (Palgrave, 2007).
  • The Early Stuart Masque: Dance, Costume, and Music (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Dance, Movement & Performance

A distinctive feature of Ravelhofer’s scholarship is its exploration of dance, choreography, gesture, and movement as forms of cultural and political expression. Her research demonstrates how dance was integral to early modern theatre and court culture, bringing together literary texts, music, costume, and visual culture to understand performance as an embodied art form.

Select publications:

  • ‘Shakespeare/Play/Dance’, in Shakespeare/Play: Contemporary Readings in Playing, Playmaking and Performance, ed. E. Whipday (Bloomsbury, 2024).
  • ‘Choreography as Commonplace’, in Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period I: Reformation, Counter-Reformation and Revolt, eds D. Cowling & M. Bruun (Peeters Publishers, 2011).

Spectacle Across Europe

Ravelhofer’s work places English literary and performance culture within a broader European context. Her research explores the circulation of theatrical ideas, ceremonial practices, and performance traditions across England, France, Italy, Germany, and beyond, highlighting the international networks that shaped Renaissance culture.

Select publications:

  • ‘Equestrian Ballet as a Representative of Cultural Change in Europe, c.1500-1700’, in “… that I wished myself a horse”: The Horse as Representative of Cultural Change in Systems of Thought, ed. S. Fielitz (Universitatsverlag Winter, 2015).
  • ‘Ancient Greece, Dance, and the English Masque’, in The Ancient Dancer in the Modern World: Responses to Greek and Roman Dance, ed. F. Ed. Macintosh (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Textual Scholarship & Archives

Alongside her research on theatre and performance, Ravelhofer has made significant contributions to textual scholarship and the editing of early modern sources. She has led collaborative editorial projects, produced scholarly editions, and worked extensively with archival materials that preserve the history of theatre, music, dance, and ceremony. This research underpins major projects such as Records of Early English Drama North-East and The Complete Works of James Shirley.

Select publications:

  • ‘Virtual Theatres’, Jahrbuch Für Computerphilologie, 4 (2002), 133-50. 
  • Johann Georg Pasch: Anleitung sich bei grossen Herrn Höfen und andern beliebt zu machen, with V. Daniels, ed. U. Schlottermüller, (2000).
  • Nevitt’s Memorial. An online edition with G. Alexander (1999).