Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cressida'

This thesis is an examination of Shakespeare's 1603 satire Troilus and Cressida that looks at illusion and the value given to it by means of war, Helen of Troy, and ultimately the two lovers themselves. Although it is depressingly obvious throughout the drama that life is an illusion, it is also obvious that there is a need for that illusion, and an equally profound necessity to have the illusion debunked. The first part of the thesis examines the impact of war on Troy. This part concentrates on the myth of the hero, who like Falstaff presents himself to the world as heroic but is actually a coward. The theme of a person who presents himself as one thing but is another recurs throughout the play. Shakespeare did not have a monopoly on this insight. The paper details how two of Shakespeare's contemporaries, Galileo and Cervantes, also addressed this problem. The paper continues with an examination of the convictions and distortions played out by the less than perfect military council and by the insidious politics of the major characters and their flawed commitment to unreliable leaders. The thesis examines the emotional traps the characters set for themselves as well as the bad advice they listen to in order to set themselves free. The paper keeps returning to the theme of illusions, their danger, and their usefulness. The end focuses on the title characters themselves, as well as the homoerotic relationship of Achilles and his live-in lover. The conclusion attempts to sort out the real from the fiction. The play ends, or so it appears, with the familiar story of two men fighting over a woman. It has come, like many other plays of the period, full circle. The characters seem at peace with themselves, or at least at peace with the haunting and perpetual idea that life is indeed an illusion with both a necessity for that illusion and an equally valid necessity to have that illusion debunked.

For three centuries, Shakespeare's Cressida was universally considered to be a fully culpable "daughter of the game." However, as a result of changing cultural conditions at the beginning of the twentieth century, her motivations within the play began to be re-examined. The threat of war in Europe and the women's struggle for equal rights renewed interest in Troilus and Cressida. From this time forward, the play was in constant production. Cressida was regarded as a coquette and a courtesan by critics and directors until the 1960s when Joseph Papp (at the New York Shakespeare Festival) portrayed her as a victim of men and war. In the 1970s, feminist critics in particular studied the nuances of one of Shakespeare's most maligned women. Their observations proved an insightful, three-dimensional analysis of a young woman in a war-torn country. Regardless of the perception of Cressida's motivations by modern thinkers, their considerations of her character were ignored in productions of the 1970s and 1980s.

Since Benoit de Sainte-Maure's creation of the Briseida story, Criseida has evolved as one of the most infamous heroines in European literature, an inconstant femme fatale. This study analyzes four different receptions of the Criseida story with a special emphasis on the antifeminist tradition. An interesting pattern arises from the ways in which four British writers render Criseida: Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Crisevde is a response to the antifeminist tradition of the story (particularly to Giovanni Boccaccio's II Filostrato); Robert Henryson's Testament of Cresseid is a direct response to Chaucer's poem; William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida aligns itself with the antifeminist tradition, but in a different way; and John Dryden's Troilus and Cressida or Truth Found Too Late is a straight rewriting of Shakespeare's play. These works themselves form an interesting canon within the whole tradition. All four writers are not only readers of the continually evolving story of Criseida but also critics, writers, and literary historians in the Jaussian sense. They critique their predecessors' works, write what they have conceived from the tradition of the story, and reinterpret the old works in that historical context.

Troilus and Cressida is the unusual instance of a Shakespearean play which had long been read and commented upon before stage practitioners explored it in the theatre. My thesis examines the changing perceptions of the play’s characters, paying attention to the chronological relationship between revisions in literary criticism, much of which was written with little proximity to performance, with reinterpretations during its British stage history. The thesis has a particular focus on issues of gender and sexuality. Both the theatre and literary criticism reflected and responded to social change in their dealings with this play, but they did so at different moments. By using the case of Troilus and Cressida, I examine whether theatrical practice or academic literary criticism has acted as the more efficient cultural barometer. Revisions of Cressida are my central example and I also examine the reinterpretations of eight other characters. The delayed acceptance of the play into the theatre means that the claims of relevance become especially acute. Despite the perceived progressive potential of performance, I conclude that theatrical representations of characters in this play have been slow to change in relation to the revisions seen on the pages of literary criticism.

Shakespeare uses metadrama as a rhetorical vehicle for responding to antitheatricalism; realistic drama and staged theatricality therefore coexist in his plays. The cultural context of the early modern era, especially its antitheatrical rhetoric and the predominance of theatricality throughout the structures of its society, illumines the interaction of metadrama and antitheatricality Shakespeare's plays, particularly Troilus and Cressida and King Lear. By failing to consider adequately the unique nature of the emergence of early modern theater and the equally distinct reaction to its popularity, previous scholarship considering antitheatricality has exhibited essentialism and a universalizing tendency similar to that of the antitheatricalists. The paucity of specifically protheatrical response in prose to the immense antitheatrical work of polemicists such as William Prynne and to antitheatrical tracts and publications signals the presence of protheatrical response within the literature of the stage: its plays. Metadramatic critics have noted that metadrama provides a subtle means of establishing a connection between actors and their audience and that it serves as a means of interrogating various deployments of theatrical power and the motives implied by its use. Troilus and Cressida celebrates, interrogates, and reproves the theater, engaging the proponents and detractors of the theater through depictions of Ulysses and Pandarus as effective and ineffective interior directors, respectively. Ulysses's militaristic drive toward victory at all costs demonstrates his affinity to the figure of the stage Machiavel, while his seemingly inexplicable hostility toward Achilles similarly marks his connection to the figure of the Vice. Pandarus's relation to theatricality highlights the negative associations of theater and prostitution apparent in the works of the antitheatricalists. His self-delusory propensity to motivate others to actions to which they are already predisposed mocks and calls into question the assertion that theater exerts motivational power over its audience. Literary critics considering King Lear observe that identity loss underpins the tragic process apparent in the plays' protagonists. Depictions of staged theatrical ability and inability and positive depictions of antitheatrical Puritanism pervade King Lear. The deployment of theatricality in the play both emphasizes its creative and soteriological function and embodies the harmful potential of dramaturgical art.

This thesis analyses hospitality in three of Shakespeare’s plays: The Merchant of Venice (c.1596-7), Troilus and Cressida (c. 1601-2) and Timon of Athens (c. 1606-7). It draws on ideas from Derrida and other recent theorists to argue that Shakespeare treats hospitality as the site of urgent ethical inquiry. Far more than a mechanical part of the stage business that brings characters on and off the performance space and into contact with one another, hospitality is allied to the darker visions of these troubling plays. Hospitality is a means by which Shakespeare confronts ideas about death and mourning, betrayal, and the problem of time and transience, encouraging us to reconsider what it means to be truly welcoming. That the three plays studied are not traditionally linked is important. The intention is not to shape the plays into a new group, but rather to demonstrate that Shakespeare’s staging of hospitality is far-reaching in its openness. Again, while the thesis is informed by Derrida’s writings, its approach is through close readings of the texts. Throughout, the thesis is careful not to prioritise big moments of spectacle over more subtle explorations of the subject. Thus, the chapter on ‘The Merchant of Venice’ explores the sounds that fill the play and its concern with our senses. Other chapters similarly approach the plays not as exemplars of hospitality but as illuminating problems posed by the complex nature of what it means to be welcoming. The second chapter on ‘Troilus and Cressida’ explores the vulnerability of guests and hosts to one another on and off the battlefield, while the last chapter on ‘Timon of Athens’ argues that the emphasis Shakespeare places on death and mourning problematises the play’s gift economy and its representation of hospitality. Finally, the conclusion glances briefly ahead to ‘The Winter’s Tale’ (c. 1610-11) and the relationship between hospitality and forgiveness. But there are no easy answers to the problem of hospitality in the late plays either, since they, too, remain caught in the dilemma of what it means to be welcoming.

Questions concerning whether Shakespeare wrote for the stage or the page are a perennial issue in Shakespeare studies. Part of the problem rests on expectations of literature and theatre. These expectations are in fact voiced in Shakespearean drama itself, a drama that often articulates ideas concerning audience expectations. In Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, before Troilus visits Cressida he exclaims “expectation whirls me round”. Of all the plays in the Shakespearean canon, variants of “expect” feature most in this play. Troilus and Cressida itself scrutinises expectation of a story with famous classical, medieval and contemporary precedents, for a play to be performed by the leading theatre company of the day, and of a play by a playwright who was also conscious of his role as a published author. In the play, characters are frequently staged as spectators or audience members, raising issues relating to expectations, taste, value judgements, and viewpoints. Shakespeare responds to the plays of his contemporaries and, arguably, the political scene as well. The thesis reworks Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the literary field to gauge the way that Shakespeare’s play engages with its theatrical and literary environment, and resituates Bourdieu’s work on taste and social distinction to consider how Shakespeare’s Trojan play responds to the contingencies of audience expectation. The first chapter considers critical expectations of the play from 1609 to the present; the second chapter focuses on the way Shakespeare stages patrons, performers and especially audience members; the third chapter reads the language of food and taste in the play in relation to developing early modern distinctions about literature and theatre; the final chapter provides a correction to readings of the play that have relied on the unique 1609 quarto preface to the play for understanding the work; this chapter argues that even the play, as staged, presents literary issues, and characters that show an awareness of print culture. Within its own early modern literary-theatrical field, Shakespeare’s play is far more about elitist tastes than it is elitist itself. Ultimately, the thesis argues that Troilus and Cressida marks Shakespeare’s growing confidence as a literary dramatist, not simply as an author whose plays were published as literature, but as a playwright who was capable of using theatre and audience expectation to re-evaluate literary tastes. Broadly positioned, the thesis provides a case study which revises critical expectations of this play in order to situate better Shakespeare’s contribution to early modern drama and literature.

Chacun est-il unique ? Cinq pièces de Shakespeare parfois appelées problem plays - All's well that Ends Well, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure et Troilus and Cressida - problématisent le singulier ou l'unicité de soi, un aspect de la question du sujet à l'ère pré-moderne. L'unicité est en crise dans ces pièces : l'analyse des substitutions dans l'action, l'amour et la mort montre l'absence et le surgissement des doubles au lieu des preuves d'unicité attendues. Celle des scènes de perception du singulier et d'énonciation de soi dans les dialogues ou monologues montre la confusion identitaire : le soi unique vacille et s'efface devant les doubles. La crise de l'unicité est aussi une crise du rapport à l'espace social et intérieur et à la temporalité. Les sujets se diluent dans la communauté et peinent à tracer des frontières entre eux-mêmes et les autres. Les plis censés révéler un espace intime découvrent un lieu paradoxal. Les effets de perspective déplacent le personnage qui regarde et qui n'a pas de lieu propre alors que le retour du politique restaure la fixité des places. Les sujets désirent s'inscrire dans une linéarité temporelle qui est déconstruite par les répétitions. Ils n'élaborent pas une histoire linéaire propre mais s'énoncent comme traces de ce qui n'a pas eu lieu et inventent un présent impossible. Il n'y a pas de temps pour soi : Hamlet, jouet d'une action sans agent et d'une durée qui le dépasse, vit et meurt la vie et la mort des autres dans le temps des autres. La dramaturgie de l'espace et du temps dans les problem plays s'avère liée aux paradoxes du singulier qui interrogent la relation entre soi-même et l'autre et à l'autre en soi-même
Is every human being unique ? Five Shakespeare plays sometimes labelled problem plays - All's well that Ends Well, Hamlet, Julius Caesar Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida - raise the issue of the singularity or uniqueness of the self, one aspect of the question of the subject in the early modern age. Uniqueness is in crisis in these plays : the study of the substitutions in action, love and death shows the absence of the self and the emergence of doubles instead of the expected proofs of uniqueness. This study of the scenes of perception of singularity and of self-speaking in the dialogues or soliloquies shows confused identities : the unique self flickers and is superseded by doubles. The crisis of uniqueness also questions the link to social and inner space and to temporality. The subjects dissolve into the community and fail to draw borders between themselves and others. The veils supposed to unveil an intimate space uncover a place of paradox. Perspective effects displace the watching character, who is then deprived of a proper place, and the return of the political reestablishes set places. The subjects wish to engage in a linear time which is deconstructed by repetitions. They do no build a proper linear history but present themselves as traces of events that did not happen and make up an impossible present. There is no time for oneself : Hamlet, the victim of agentless action and of unmastered duration, lives and dies the lives and deaths of others in the time of others. The dramatic art of space and time in the problem plays is linked to the paradoxes of singularity that question the relationship between oneself and the other and to the other in oneself

This study is aimed to read Shakespeare's problem comedies, Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure into the historical and cultural context of dynamically-changing English Renaissance society at the turn of the sixteenth century. In the historical context of emerging capitalism, growing economic crisis, reformed theology, changing social hierarchy, and increasing sexual control, this study investigates the nature of complicated moral problems that the plays consistently present. The primary argument is that the serious and dark picture of human dilemma is attributed not to Shakespeare's private imagination, but to social, political, economic, and religious crises in early modern England.

Huge changes in climate occurred at the end of the last Quaternary glaciation. The end of this glaciation corresponds with the end of Pleistocene with its repeated glacial cycles and the start of the current geological epoch, the Holocene interglacial. The climate at this time was characterized by increasing temperatures and an increase in rainfall. This project focuses on understanding and examining these changes in climate using loess deposits from south-western England. Loess is an aeolian sediment and covers around 10 % of the Earth’s land surface and these deposits are excellent archives of past climate. Investigating loess can give understanding of past regional and local wind circulation patterns, atmospheric dustiness as well as weathering conditions. Studying paleoclimate is important since studying and understanding trends in past climate can increase our understanding of how the climate will change in the future. This study examined loess from two sites in south-western England, Porth Cressa and Lowland Point. These are relatively thin deposits; Lowland Point has a thickness of 180 cm and Porth Cressa has a thickness of 97 cm. England lacks the thick loess deposits that can be found in other parts of the world and thus the study of English loess has mostly been neglected. These deposits thus could contain unutilized information about paleoclimate. The elemental composition of the samples was examined using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). With the measured elemental composition, it’s possible to use weathering indices to see trends in postdepositional weathering. Low weathering intensities indicate a colder and drier climate, while higher weathering intensities indicate a warmer and more humid climate. The results from the weathering indices were plotted against depth at the two sites to identify changes in weathering and hence climate over time. Compared with the results from previous studies the results from some weathering indices seemed credible. Previous studies have indicated that the Chemical Proxy of Alteration (CPA) is the most appropriate weathering index for loess and the results from this study supports that theory. The results from the CPA show a trend with decreasing weathering intensities followed by a trend with increasing weathering intensities This implies that there was a period with decreasing temperatures/humidity followed by a period with increasing temperature humidity sometime at the end of the last glaciation. The geochemical data also showed support for a previous archaeological theory that there has been human reworking in the upper horizons at Lowland Point.
Slutet av den sista kvartära glaciationen var en tid med stora klimatförändringar. Denna tid sammanfaller med slutet av Pleistocene och dess glaciära cyklar samt starten på den nuvarande geologiska epoken, Holocen. Klimatet vid den här tiden karaktäriserades av ökande temperaturer och ökande nederbörd. Det här projektet fokuserar på att granska och förstå dessa klimatförändringar med hjälp av lössjordar från sydvästra England. Löss bildas av vindburet sediment och täcker ungefär 10 % av jordens landyta, dessa avlagringar är utmärkta arkiv för historiskt klimat. Att undersöka lössjordar kan ge information om historiska regionala och lokala vindcirkulations-mönster, vittringsförhållanden samt mängden damm i atmosfären. Att undersöka paleoklimat är viktigt då förståelse för trender i tidigare klimat kan ge oss förståelse för hur klimatet kommer förändras i framtiden. Den här studien undersökte löss från två platser i sydvästra England, Lowland Point och Porth Cressa. Dessa avlagringar är relativt tunna; Lowland Point har en tjocklek på 180 cm och Porth Cressa har en tjocklek på 97 cm. England har inte de tjocka lössavlagringarna som går att hitta i andra delar av världen och därför har lite forskning utförts på brittiskt löss. Dessa avlagringar kan alltså innehålla oanvänd information om paleoklimat. Provernas grundämnessammansättning undersöktes med X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). Med den uppmäta grundämnessammansättningen är det möjligt att använda vittringsindex för att se trender i vittring efter deposition. En låg vittringsintensitet indikerar ett kallare och torrare klimat medan en högre vittringsintensitet indikerar ett varmare och fuktigare klimat. Resultaten plottades mot djup för att visuellt identifiera förändringar i klimatet över tid. Vid jämförelse med tidigare studier verkade resultaten från vittringsindexen trovärdiga. Tidigare studier har föreslagit att CPA (Chemical Proxy of Alteration) är det mest lämpliga vittringsindexet för lössjordar och resultaten från denna studie stödjer den teorin. Resultaten från CPA visade på en trend med minskade vittringsintensitet följt av en trend med ökande vittrings intensitet. Detta antyder att det var en period med minskande temperatur/fuktighet följt av en period med ökande temperatur/fuktighet runt slutet av den senaste istiden. De geokemiska resultaten stödde också den tidigare arkeologiska teorin att mänsklig aktivitet har påverkat de övre horisonterna vid Lowland Point.

Conversations among scholars in the study of Chaucer have been essential in constructing the foundations on which we now stand. However, in light of recent pressures in the very competitive and practical aspects of academic life, the scholarly conversation is often lost amidst the desire to find any obscure point on which to publish simply for the reason that no one has yet said anything about it. There is certainly a usefulness to exploring all facets of Chaucer's work, but there is also a need to slough off the cumbersome coat of 'publish-or-perish' scholarship in favor of carrying on a more meaningful conversation which may contribute to new readings or interpretations, epiphanies, or canon-altering revelations. This bibliography was begun for two purposes. First, as a bibliography, it was made to serve its users in a convenient and comprehensive manner. Second, it was made to illustrate the conversations of recent years, or lack thereof, among scholars concerned with the character and actions of Criseyde in the Troilus. Criseyde is arguably the quintessential character in Chaucer's works. She is wonderfully enigmatic, and her role in the Troilus spawned six hundred years of debate. The chapters which follow testify to the complexity of Criseyde. As she caught the eye of multiple authors from classical antiquity to the Elizabethan age, she continues to entice scholars to read and re-read her in various articles, chapters, and books. This is supported by the fact that nearly one quarter of all scholarship published (over four hundred works) on Troilus and Criseyde since 1986 deals expressly with Criseyde, herself. This bibliography is constructed as it is in the hope of providing a more convenient tool for scholars. The Riverside Chaucer serves as an adequate starting point because of its comprehensive compilation of notes and studies on Chaucer's works, including the Troilus. Since nothing of similar stature has appeared since, this bibliography will begin in 1986, the year in which the Riverside's compilation came to an end. Chapter 1 of this study looks at recent scholarship which examines the origins of Chaucer's Criseyde. While W.W. Skeat and R.K. Root provided us long ago with detailed lists and accounts of Chaucer's sources for the Troilus, today's scholars continue to make new additions to these, as well as new interpretations and readings which suggest further, new or different sources. The final chapter of this work examines the scholarship that reads Criseyde's role in the poem as a whole, not focusing on any one scene or act. Scholars such as David Aers and Jill Mann provide critiques on the nature of Criseyde from our initial sight of her in Book I to her final departure from the poem in Book V. Interestingly, recent scholarship on Criseyde tends to focus on one or more specific scenes in a specific book within the poem. Scholars deconstruct Criseyde's entrance at the Palladium in Book I, her reaction to Pandarus' goading her to love Troilus in Book II, or descriptions of her dress in the Greek camp in Book IV. Therefore, in structuring this bibliography, rather than focusing on themes, I sought to frame the scholarship with the poem's own narrative structure. Thus, chapters two, three, four, and five are comprised of scholarship that examines Books I, II, III, and Books IV and V of the Troilus. Users who question certain scenes in one of the poem's books can then look to the corresponding chapter of this bibliography to find whether scholars have conversed about the scene or scenes in question. In a sense, this bibliography examines Criseyde's existence prior to Chaucer's poem, her activity within Chaucer's poem, and her reputation upon exiting Chaucer's poem. This bibliography seeks to put scholarship together in such a way as to confirm whether or not scholars are continuing conversations about Chaucer's Criseyde. In many cases we find that conversations do exist and are carried forward. New landmarks in scholarship, for example Piero Boitani's edited collection The European Tragedy of the Troilus or David Aers' Community, Gender, and Individual Identity, are made apparent by the number of other scholars conversing on arguments and suggestions made by the contributing authors of these two works. Scholars pick up where their predecessors leave off in continuing arguments, patterns of interpretation, and close readings of Criseyde. Further, scholars begin new conversations. In some instances, both old and new conversations fail to move forward, whether by mischance or 'entente.' It is essential that we continue these colloquial discussions of scholarship as the critical scope of Chaucer studies widens, rather than rocketing forward as it did with the work of Skeat, Root, Donaldson, and Robertson in the early and mid twentieth-century. Certainly, we can disagree, but let us remember the ease with which C.S. Lewis discusses Medieval literature in his Discarded Image and the warmth of a conference session at MLA, NCS, or Kalamazoo, in which Chaucerians gather to move forward as one body rather than a mix of warring clans, prima donnas, or renegade dissenters. Scholarship aside, I offer this bibliography lastly to demonstrate the wonders of Chaucer's poetic arts and their chief exemplar, Criseyde.
Master of Arts

Submitted by Rafael Azevedo (rafael.moura.a@gmail.com) on 2011-02-04T18:51:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael Azevedo Mestrado.pdf: 228231 bytes, checksum: f596212a38122e71eb88fc33a720b8b5 (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado(andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2011-02-07T11:25:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael Azevedo Mestrado.pdf: 228231 bytes, checksum: f596212a38122e71eb88fc33a720b8b5 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-16T12:37:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael Azevedo Mestrado.pdf: 228231 bytes, checksum: f596212a38122e71eb88fc33a720b8b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-20
Este trabalho apresenta um método de apreçamento não paramétrico de derivativos de taxa de juros baseado em teoria da informação. O apreçamento se dá através da distribuição de probabilidade na medida futura, estimando aquela que mais se aproxima da distribuição objetiva. A teoria da informação sugere a forma de medir esta distância. Especificamente, esta dissertação generaliza o método de apreçamento canônico criado por Stutzer (1996), também baseado na teoria da informação, para o caso de derivativos de taxas de juros usando a classe Cressie-Read como critério de distância entre distribuições de probabilidade.

碩士
國立成功大學
外國語文學系碩博士班
94
Title of Thesis: Bisexuality in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida Name of Institute: Graduate Institute of Foreign Languages and Literature National Cheng Kung University Graduation Date: July 2006 Degree Conferred: Master of Arts Graduate Student: Hsiao-Ling Chang Thesis Advisor: Dr. Yuan-Guey Chiou Abstract Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida has been regarded as a problematic play, not only in the aspect of its structure, but also in the aspect of its characters. This thesis attempts to solve these troublesome problems by utilizing Helene Cixous’s notion of bisexuality. Cixous’s concept of bisexuality breaks the traditional barrier of gender. The “masculinity” is not a term which can only be used by men. The “femininity” Cixous endeavors to draw our attention to is not a term with which men are prohibited to be associated with. Cixous criticizes our recognition of the terms “masculine” and “feminine” as rather unexamined, rigid ideas. “Masculine” attributes have been “properly” characterized as men’s traits for a long time and this society expects men to take the dominant roles. However, men underestimate the value of “feminine” traits, which can meet a degree of balance of human nature within those in power. Without these “feminine” traits we should be in danger of self-destruction, because we are excluded from the blessings of “feminine” lovingness and nourishment. 　　Therefore, this thesis is both an examination of the binary system under patriarchy and a reflection of our current situation, not on the virtues of either “masculine” or “feminine” principles. Cixous’s notion of bisexuality deconstructs the binary system and provides more flexible and multiple expressions of human beings.

碩士
國立政治大學
英國語文學系
84
The aim of this study is to examine Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida from a feminist perspective. Traditional reading tends to deem Shakespeare's Cressida to be a type of inconstancy, a female wanton, but I would like to prove that she does not deserve all the blame from critics as well as from the men in the play. In fact, she is oppressed and victimized in her patriarchal culture. The thesis is composed of one introduction and five chapters. The Introduction briefly outlines the various assessments from critics and the motivation of my research on the topic. Chapter One discusses the unbalanced relationship between man and woman, and uncovers how the contaminated conception of love degrades the lovers in the play. Chapter Two attempts to expose the irrationality of the male characters with regard to the worth of Helen, who is reduced to the status of commodity. Chapter Three delineates Troilus and Cressida's encounter, and scrutinizes Cressida's conformity to woman's decorum. However, her intentional subjection to woman's role is interpreted as a calculating flirt. In Chapter Four, I would like to subvert the traditional fallacy of "true Troilus" and "false Cressida." In fact, Cressida is only a prey to Troilus' sexual appetite. Her precarious position as a powerless woman renders her incapable of love. In the last Chapter, I wish to provide an overall reappraisal to the play. By carefully examining Shakespeare's treatment of the legendary story, we may discover that the playwright indeed exonerates Cressida who is seriously misunderstood as an archetype of falsehood.

The dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the degree of Master of Arts. Degree awarded with distinction on 6 December 1995
This dissertation explores the possibility of reading Troilus and Cressida in the context of the changing religious debate of the era, and certain differences to be found in protestant as compared with Catholic/Christian humanist discourses. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version]

My argument assesses and reconfigures binary structures in Shakespeare’s plays and in Shakespeare criticism. I contend that ideas in early modern literature often exhibit three aspects, but that critics, who mostly rely upon a binary philosophical vocabulary, tend to notice only two aspects at a time, thereby “digesting” the third. My opening chapter theorizes the superimposition of triadic structures upon dyads, arguing that this new polyrhythmic strategy helps recapture an early modern philosophical perspective by circumventing the entrenched binary categories we have inherited from the Enlightenment. In Chapter Two, I examine the relationship of tyranny and conscience in Tudor politics, Reformed psychology, and Richard III. Early modern political theorists often employ a binary opposition of kingship and tyranny, and historians typically draw a binary distinction between absolutists and resisters. I argue that there were in fact three ideological positions on offer which these binaries misrepresent. As well, Reformed psychology emphasizes the relationship of the individual subject and an objective God, unmediated by community, and I propose that this opposition of subjectivity and objectivity digests the idea of intersubjectivity. In Richard III, Shakespeare interrogates the implausibility of Tudor political binaries and stages a nostalgia for intersubjective community and conscience. In Chapter Three I read the debates on value in Troilus and Cressida alongside contemporary economic writings by Gerard de Malynes on currency reform and “merchandizing exchange.” Our current models of value – intrinsic and extrinsic, use and exchange, worth and price – are emphatically binary, but the mercantile practices that Malynes describes depend upon a triadic conception of value. My contention is that Troilus and Cressida becomes a less problematic problem play when value is conceived as triadic rather than dyadic. In Chapter Four I explore early modern scepticism in connection with Coriolanus. Reading Montaigne and Wittgenstein in parallel, I distinguish between various conceptions of truth that are regularly grouped together under the blanket term “scepticism.” Then I turn to read Coriolanus as an experiment in competing modes of early modern epistemology, arguing that the play ultimately endorses the same sort of polyphonous Pyrrhonian scepticism that we find in Montaigne and Wittgenstein.

This dissertation uses psychoanalytic theory to examine the similar portrayals of monstrous femininity in two Middle English poems, Robert Henryson’s the Testament of Cresseid and the Awntyrs off Arthure. In the Testament, Cresseid’s leprosy is interpreted through Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, suggesting that Cresseid experiences the abject to create a new identity as a leper. Rather than view Cresseid’s dream as an assembly of very real divinities who pass judgment over her sleeping body, I interpret the dream in a strictly physiological sense, arguing that Cresseid not only creates the judgment from her own conflicted psychology, but actively shapes her own destiny. Cresseid’s disease does not annihilate her identity, but gives her a significant position in society, because her status as a leper facilitates the economy of salvation. I continue with Kristeva’s theory to understand the characterization of the grotesque corpse of Gaynour’s mother in the Awntyrs off Arthure. Her rotting body is doubly abject, both as a corpse and a mother. While abjection provides a useful opening for discussing the portraits of Gaynour and her mother, Kristeva’s theory does not consider all women in the text, and only confirms misogynist stereotypes. To supplement Kristeva, I use Slavoj Žižek’s interpretation of Jacques Lacan’s theory of desire to illuminate the text as a whole, and explain the role of the corpse in shaping the narrative.
Thesis (Master, English) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-20 03:15:54.674