Gendering the Nation studies the role of the comic theatre in Britain during the long eighteenth century as a nation-building discourse. It evaluates the impact of the cultural phenomenon of Sentimentality on the English comic stage in conceptualising gendered identities for the men and women of a polite, genteel nation. The book analyses certain popular comic plays of the time to ascertain the extent to which they could constitute gender – masculinity and femininity – as the basis of a secure social order and a stable nation. A study of gender–culture interface, Gendering the Nation offers new readings of non-canonical plays and makes extensive use of several extra-literary discourses