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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Dramatic criticism Dramatic criticism'
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1
Huismans, Anja. ""A just and lively image" - performance in Neo-classic theatre criticism and theory." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1756.
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Westfall, Joseph. "The Kierkegaardian author authorship and performance in Kierkegaard's literary and dramatic criticism." Berlin New York de Gruyter, 2005. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2909222&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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Westfall, Joseph. "The Kierkegaardian author : authorship and performance in Kierkegaard's literary and dramatic criticism /." Berlin [u.a.] : de Gruyter, 2007. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2909222&prov=M&dokv̲ar=1&doke̲xt=htm.
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Wright, Elizabeth Helena. "Virginia Woolf and the dramatic imagination." Thesis, St Andrews, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/510.
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Cooper, Craig Richard. "Gnomes of the Oresteia : lyrical reflection and its dramatic relevance." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25367.
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One of the most distinctive features of Aeschylus' poetic style is the choral odes. The odes can generally be divided into two parts: lyrical narrative and lyrical reflection. The narrative sections motivate the main action of the drama, often relating past events and causes. The lyrical reflection is distinguished from the narrative parts by its overt moralizing that lift the dramatic action from the particular to the universal. Within these sections of the ode, are clusters of moral generalizations or gnomes, dealing with a variety of topics but always of a distinctively moral nature. These gnomes far from being unrelated, in fact, give logic to the dramatic events, explaining the reason for a particular event and presenting that event in universal terms, in terms, let us say, of the justice of Zeus or the working of Fate. In fact, the gnomes move along two directions of the drama. They reflect upon and anticipate its events. The conflicts in, and resolutions to the drama are often worked out at the lyrical level. It is the purpose of this thesis, then, to study the gnomes of the Oresteia and their surrounding gnomic passages, to examine their meaning within their immediate context, and to see how and to what extent the gnomes relate to the dramatic actions.<br>Arts, Faculty of<br>Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of<br>Graduate
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Painter, Megan G. "The dramatic monologue aesthetic and the reader experience /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p9901268.
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Ziskin, Gregory. "The main principles of Chekhov's dramatic technique /." Thesis, McGill University, 1988. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61256.
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The purpose of the present study is to analyze the structural techniques and genre of Chekhov's plays.<br>The many books and articles published on Chekhov's plays far exceeds his own works. Although there have been numerous studies analyzing the structural techniques of his play, considerable controversy still exists among literary and theatre scholars regarding the genre of his plays. Most of the studies simply avoid this complex and intricate problem.<br>In this study particular emphasis is also placed on the dramatic techniques used by Chekhov: the sequence of events, the nature of the roles and the so-called "unfinished" endings.
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Morris, J. "Doubtful designs : A study of the works of Tom Stoppard." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.380690.
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Orand, Amber Werley Darden Bob. "A quantitative analysis of theater criticism in four American newspapers." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/5169.
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Weiss, Katherine. "“Response 2” of Carol Fischer’s “Dramatic Time: Phenomena and Dilemmas”." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2010. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2287.
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Li, Siu Leung, and 李小良. "Toward a theory of dramatic adaptation: with special reference to Shakespearean and Ming Qing adaptations." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1986. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31207352.
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Crew, Teresa Ammons. "A creative interpretation of the short stories of Kate Chopin through dramatic play-manuscripts." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683263.
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Pollard, Matthew. "The bodies of Kleist : aspects of corporeality in his dramatic works." Thesis, McGill University, 1997. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=35047.
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This dissertation examines the representations of the body in the completed dramatic works of Heinrich von Kleist (1777--1811). While taking into account the psychoanalytical and philosophical approaches to Kleist, this project has Heiner Miller's words as its point of departure: that the theater represents the collision of ideas with the body. The forces of power, gender and authority leave their traces of this collision on the bodies of his characters, whose metaphorical and literal falls, wounds and recoveries speak their own gestural language.<br>This study is organized on the principle of Kleist's use of genre designation, the approximate chronological order of his plays, and the representation of the body. Chapter one focuses on Die Familie Schroffenstein, Der zerbrochne Krug, and Amphitryon and the notion of bodily authenticity and integrity; chapter two, on Die Hermannsschlacht and Penthesilea, looks at the spectacle of violence and its effect on the body mobilized by emotional extremity; the third chapter, on Kleist's most celebrated works, Prinz Friedrich von Homburg and Das Kathchen von Heilbronn, examines aspects of gender and vulnerability. The conclusion views his essay "Uber das Marionettentheater" not as a key to understanding his works, but rather as a culmination of them, and investigates Kleist's writing on the wounded body and its connection to grace.
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Da, Silva Eusebia. "Dramatic unity in Spenser's Amoretti, Anacreontics and Fowre Hymnes." Thesis, McGill University, 1989. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61905.
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Homan, Elizabeth A. "Cultural contexts and the American classical canon : contemporary approaches to performing Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 1997. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p9842537.
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Allingham, Philip Victor. "Dramatic adaptations of the Christmas books of Charles Dickens, 1844-8 : texts and contexts." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28615.
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Although Dickens' familiarity with Victorian theatre has been explored with reference to his own playwrighting, amateur theatricals, style, and characterization, little work has been done on his actual
involvement with the adaptation of his works for the stage. For example, even though A Christmas Carol remains his most staged and filmed work, few critics have explored the degree of Dickens' involvement in the 'officially-sanctioned' adaptation by one of the Victorian theatre's most prolific adaptors, Edward Stirling. Dickens' letters shed some light on his involvement
in the staging of the various Christmas Books, but they do not indicate much about the adaptations
themselves.
Furthermore, neither Malcolm Morley in his series
of articles in the Dickensian nor F. Dubrez Fawcett in Dickens the Dramatist (1952) has considered the relationship between the final printed text of each novella, that of the corresponding official adaptation, and the original manuscript of the play that was submitted to the office of the Lord Chamberlain
for licensing.
While the intention of the following dissertation
is to reveal the methods employed by Dickens' stage adaptors, it occasionally reveals passages that, rejected for the final text of the novella, were retained in the drama, based as it was on early proof sheets. The most notable instance of such a phenomenon occurs in the Mark Lemon/Gilbert A'Beckett adaptation of the second of the Christmas Books, The Chimes (1844), in which Dickens seems to have modified the plot in the final stages in order to make it less controversial.
Although Dickens was not much involved in the staging of The Chimes, he appears to have worked closely with the company at the Royal Lyceum (his friends the Keeleys being both the comedic stars and managers of that theatre) and the adaptor, Albert
Smith. In the 1846 production of The Battle of Life Dickens made innovative suggestions about the staging, including the transformation scene and the use of a miniature coach advancing through the background,
climaxed by the appearance of a real carriage
on stage. Dickens' letters attest to his being the originator of these innovations; reviews in the contemporary press attest to their effectiveness.
Finally, despite their tremendous popularity in their own day, the dramatic adaptations of the Christmas Books seem to be accorded a place neither in studies of the early Victorian theatre nor in discussions of that most formative period in the literary
career of Charles Dickens, the 1840s. The Christmas Books and their theatrical progeny occupied a good deal of Dickens' time between Martin Chuzzle-wit and David Copperf ield, but only recently have the importance of the Christmas Books and the scope of Dickens' works on stage been fully recognized.
Another intention of this study is to reveal the extent of Dickens' role in the dramatisation of the Christmas Books through an examination of the texts of the sanctioned adaptations and the Christmas Books themselves. The dissertation has a two-fold structure in that it consists of a critical study of the plays and their contexts, as well as a (non-critical)
edition of Stirling's Christmas Carol and Lemon's Haunted Man, which exist only in manuscript. No previous writer on the subject of Dickens and the drama has attempted to bring together information on the adaptors, actors and actresses, theatres, play manuscripts and published texts. This dissertation provides an exhaustive study of what is known about these subjects while endeavouring to establish the extent of Dickens' involvement in the writing and staging of the officially-sanctioned plays based on the Christmas Books.
Would that Christmas lasted the whole year through, and that the prejudices and passions which deform our better nature, were never called into action among those to whom they should ever be strangers!
(Charles Dickens, Sketches By Boz, p. 210)<br>Arts, Faculty of<br>English, Department of<br>Graduate
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Nforbin, Gerald [Verfasser]. "Bernard Shaw's reconfiguration of dramatic genres as force-fields in socio-cultural and new aesthetic criticism / Gerald Nforbin." Gießen : Universitätsbibliothek, 2012. http://d-nb.info/1063953642/34.
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Georges, Pierre Marie. "Dramatic space : Jerzy Grotowski and the recovery of the ritual function of theatre." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32820.
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This thesis explores temporal forms of architectural meaning through the investigation of the dramatic space of "ritual theatre." In particular, it analyzes the thought and several theatrical productions of the twentieth century Polish theatre director, Jerzy Grotowski: Grotowski is of particular interest because he designed a "total dramatic space" that incorporated both the actors and the spectators (although without necessarily integrating them) for each of his dramatic works. In each case, the spatial relationships created by the theatrical architecture were indissolubly connected to the meaning of the drama itself. In this way, space was used as a kind of third protagonist that, along with the actors and spectators, participates in the theatrical ritual.
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Yantolo-Sotyelelwa, Betty Matase. "The portrayal of characters through dialogue and action in isiXhosa drama : dramatic and cultural perspectives." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/3361.
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Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.<br>This study aims at highlighting one of the crucial aspects of Xhosa drama: how women have been regarded by a variety of communities as being inferior to men. This stereotype pervades almost all spheres of life. The low status assigned to women find its way into literature as well. Ngewu’s drama “Yeha mfazi obulala indoda” and Taleni’s drama “Nyana nank’uNyoko” has been examined. In most Xhosa literature, women are portrayed as submissive, obedient and minor characters. The advent of Ngewu’s work changed this scenario by portraying women as independent characters. This has led to great conflict with male characteristics and this demonstrates clearly that partriarchal domination is deep rooted in Xhosa culture.
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Carson, Jo. "Teller Tales: Histories." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2007. http://amzn.com/082141753.
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Recounts the story of the Overmountain Men and the battle of King's Mountain, a tide-turning battle in the American Revolution. This title includes the stories of native Americans, settlers, explorers, and revolutionaries of early America.<br>https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1018/thumbnail.jpg
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LAW, Yuen Fun Muriel. "Drama as method : recontextualizing project learning for HK secondary schools." Digital Commons @ Lingnan University, 2012. https://commons.ln.edu.hk/cs_etd/16.
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This doctoral study is grounded in the work of cultural studies and its concern for pedagogy and education. The study investigated a local pedagogical issue— Independent Enquiry Study (IES)—a specific form of social inquiry in the core subject Liberal Studies (LS) in Hong Kong senior secondary schools. It took a designated IES classroom as the point of intervention and as the basis for exploring transformed pedagogical practices in Hong Kong secondary school education. My vantage point of the intervention rested on participant-observation through action research and critical contextual analysis of the action-research site and its relations to the wider social contexts. With a conceptual-analytical framework of drama and the performative, developed from William’ notion of drama and Schechner’s notion of make-belief and make-believe performances, this study examined how the method of drama could mediate a group of senior secondary students’ extended process of inquiry into social issues in contemporary Hong Kong society.
Findings reveal that IES in Hong Kong senior secondary schools is almost already performative in nature and IES students were almost already performers eager to present themselves to their teacher-assessors as knowledge builders capable of reflective thinking. In fact, these students subscribed to the positivistic and cynical practices of reproducing existing curricular (and media) discourses and applying them to understanding the social. In performing seeming acts of inquiry, these IES students would re-enact the prescribed curricular (and media) discourses of understanding and reproducing the existing social order.
Research findings indicate that drama can be a method of work that supports student inquirers socially as a group. Liminal dramatic spaces and the use of dramatic role and real-life image afforded the participant-students the opportunity to create, experience, and interpret an imaginary world, promoting social inquiry. The spaces helped give shape to students’ diverse roles including those of IES co-informant, member of society, and peer IES learner-assessor. By activating these roles, students momentarily suspended self-other relations and the mechanically induced perceptions of social realities typified by conventional IES method. Drama also functions as a lens. It reflects how the method of IES typifies students’ roles as performers and sustains their dependence on templates of work and on the teachers’ assessment guides. Research findings further show that the performative make-belief schooling practices encompassed the everyday school life of the participating students and their teachers, and indeed subsumed and contained the effects of my dramatic interventions within the action-research context. The IES students at this specific research site were subjected to a process of cynical subject formation. When it comes to social inquiry, these students’ cynical IES practices, including cynical IES reasoning, is partly the result of the teachers’ instructional needs. Hence, dramatic and academic interventions in IES processes will be ineffective if wider school and social contextual elements are not reworked. The study calls for collective efforts from academics and scholars to intervene in all levels of educational practices, with the aim of remaking the vast contextual sweep of teaching and learning in Hong Kong as a way out of these cynical and positivistic inquiry-learning practices.
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Burnett, Linda Avril. "The argument against tragedy in feminist dramatic re-vision of the plays of Euripides and Shakespeare /." Thesis, McGill University, 1998. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=35857.
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This dissertation examines the arguments against tragedy offered by feminist playwrights in their "re-visions" of the plays of Euripides and Shakespeare.<br>In the first part, I maintain that feminist dramatic re-vision is one manifestation of an unrecognized tradition of women's writing in which criticism is expressed through fiction. I also argue that the project of feminist dramatic re-vision embodies a feminist "new poetics."<br>In the second part, I examine the aesthetics and politics of tragedy from a feminist perspective. Feminist arguments against tragedy are, in effect arguments against patriarchy. But it is the theorists and critics of tragedy---not the playwrights---who are unequivocally aligned with patriarchy. Playwrights like Euripides and Shakespeare can be seen to destabilize tragedy in their plays.<br>In the third part, I show how recent feminist playwrights (Jackie Crossland, Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Deborah Porter, Caryl Churchill and David Lan, Maureen Duffy, Alison Lyssa, The Women's Theatre Group and Elaine Feinstein, Joan Ure, Margaret Clarke, and Ann-Marie MacDonald) counter tragedy by extrapolating from the arguments presented by Euripides and Shakespeare in The Medea, The Bacchae, King Lear, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Othello , and by allocating voice and agency to their female protagonists.
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Edelman, Charles. "The theatrical and dramatic form of the swordfight in the chronicle plays of Shakespeare." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1988. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phe21.pdf.
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LAW, Ching. "高行健之戲劇 : 理論與實踐". Digital Commons @ Lingnan University, 2006. https://commons.ln.edu.hk/otd/17.
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高行健的戲劇作品與理論，兼備中西文化主題（motifs），東西方劇場的手法，最適合作比較文學的範例。本文全面分析高行健的劇作與理論，從主題與形式兩方面，審度劇作中重複出現追尋自我的主題。其劇作包括《絕對信號》、《車站》、《野人》、《彼岸》、《冥城》、《逃亡》、《山海經傳奇》、《生死界》、《對話與反詰》、《夜遊神》、《周末四重奏》、《八月雪》、《叩問死亡》；五個現代折子戲包括《模仿者》、《躲雨》、《行路難》、《喀巴拉山口》、《獨白》；一個舞劇《聲聲慢變奏》共計十八部戲劇。又整理探究理論文集《對一種戲劇的追求》、《沒有主義》、以及《文學的理由》。作者的主體意識扣緊不同時期的逃亡經驗，經一番外求與內尋的過程，不斷抗衡與否定不同的「他者」。這種抗衡，固然呈現人類本質的狀態，卻缺乏主體的自主性，也展示主題的矛盾。因為無論「他者」怎樣不斷置換為集體、強權、中國、性、慾望等對象，也不能抹殺其先於主體的實存性，反倒確立了主體的依附性。所以他的主體都一貫逃避中心、集體、缺乏實質的內涵，卻又內外交困，無法安頓。這種不斷反詰的精神，又反映在劇作的「間離」的形式上。高行健以敘事、三重角色與儀式（rituals），間離觀眾與角色。雖然他追求戲劇本質，嘗試回復中國儺戲與戲曲的傳統，也緊隨現當代劇作家如布萊希特（Bertolt Brecht）、惹奈（Jean Genet），但是難以調動觀眾的直覺感知經驗，達至娛人的目的。更有甚者，因為敘事手法的視點所限，宣揚個人主義的目的，昭然若揭。他的儀式意在增強戲劇的假定性，不在於回歸中國的佛道傳統，但效果不彰。他的「表演三重論」源於中國戲曲與布萊希特，貢獻止於為表演的監控意識命名，缺乏系統落實的方法，故難以與斯坦尼斯夫斯基（Konstantin Stanislavsky）、以及格羅多夫斯基（Jerzy Grotowski）的表演系統相提並論。本文試以高行健的劇作與理論，與現當代的國際劇作家、以及劇場理論家的成就互相發明，以鑑定其戲劇地位。
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Ben-Shach, Jane Respitz. "The false Messiah in Yiddish literature : a comparison between two dramatic works." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=59384.
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This thesis discusses the role of the "false Messiah" in modern Yiddish Literature.<br>The figure of the Messiah in Jewish religious imagination signifies the prophetic yearning for redemption at the end of days, but it also provoked hopes in a strong leader who will bring about social and political redemption. Based on historical models, literature from the twelfth to the twentieth century addressed these "false Messiahs" and in the modern period used them to define and illustrate contemporary catastrophe.<br>Shlomo Molcho by American Yiddish poet Aaron Glanz-Leyeles and Prince Reuveni by Soviet Yiddish author David Bergelson are two twentieth century poetic historic dramas based on two messianic figures of the sixteenth century. These two modern works are compared in relation to the respective authors' life and times, political and aesthetic outlook, and dramatic powers. The comparison shows the usefulness of the "false Messiah" in dramatizing and expressing difficult contemporary issues.
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Gorney, Allen. "TRULY AN AWESOME SPECTACLE": GENDER PERFORMATIVITY AND THE ALIENATION EFFECT IN ANGELS IN AMERICA." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2005. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2284.
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Tony Kushner's two-part play Angels in America uses stereotypical depictions of gay men to deconstruct traditional gender dichotomies. In this thesis, I argue that Kushner has created a continuum of gender performativity to deconstruct these traditional gender dichotomies, thereby empowering the effeminate and disempowering the masculine. I closely examine Kushner's use of Brechtian and Aristotelian tenets in the first Broadway production of the play to demonstrate that Kushner sought to induce social awareness of gay male oppression, contingent on the audience's perception of Kushner's deconstruction of the traditional gender dichotomy. I also scrutinize the role of the closet and its implications in the play, primarily analyzed with Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's theoretical framework, suggesting Kushner's partiality to openly gay men who can actively participate in the cessation of gay male oppression.<br>M.A.<br>Department of English<br>Arts and Sciences<br>English
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Carson, Jo. "Spider Speculations: A Physics and Biophysics of Storytelling." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2008. http://amzn.com/1559362839.
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"Jo Carson lays bare her personal investigation into her own creative process after a spider bite on her back begins a series of life-altering events. Spider Speculations applies cutting edge mind-body science, quantum physics and ancient shamanistic techniques to describe how stories work in our bodies and our lives, and what happens when real stories are used in a public way. Carson, whose ability to capture the spoken word hallmarks her community-based work, sets down this story in her own distinctive voice, interspersing the journey with examples of her performance work. This truly original American book will speak to anyone thinking about art and community or engaging with people's stories"--Publisher description.<br>https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1019/thumbnail.jpg
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Freeman, Grant HS. "A Pact Sealed in Blood: The Creation of Blood Letters: An American Odyssey." VCU Scholars Compass, 2014. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3630.
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A Pact Sealed in Blood: The Creation of Blood Letters: An American Odyssey is a reflection on the project, writing, script and production phases of a student researched and written theatrical script, which debuted in the Shafer Street Playhouse on April 24, 2014 on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. This paper looks at the processes involved with the creation of that piece. The theatrical piece tells the tales of three men over the course of 150 years as each man goes through his own personal crucible. The first fights for his country and his family during the American Civil War. The second fights for his country and his love during World War Two. The third works for his country and searches for his family during bouts of political destruction, alcoholism, and lost love. The piece interweaves these three tales with a fourth, present day narrator, in an adaption of Homer’s The Odyssey. This paper looks at the research, development of the script, and the final product of that theatrical piece. It also delves into the author’s beliefs on the search for the human soul within writing and the importance of connection within that search. Finally, it is revealed that perhaps the greatest search lies within our own personal journey.
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Choate, Catie. "The Action to the Word, The Word to the Action: Teaching Shakespeare as Performance Litearture." VCU Scholars Compass, 2016. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4234.
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This paper details a class taught in the Virginia Commonwealth Theatre Department in Fall of 2015 on the works of William Shakespeare. Within both the class and this paper, I attempted to form the beginnings of a pedagogy of Shakespearean literature that incorporated elements of literary criticism, historical context and performance theory. Dramatic literature, including Shakespeare, is a moving target, as the text is reimagine and reinterpreted on stage again and again. My goal with this paper is to examine both how dramatic literature can be taught and the special challenges present in teaching it using Shakespeare as a case study, and to explore what is particularly meaningful about Shakespeare in the classroom.
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Cunliffe, Rozanne Mary. "Magical words & iceberg territory : an exploration of the multifunctionality of language in dramatic dialogue, with specific reference to selected Fugard plays." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/51823.
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Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Most critics and academics have concentrated on the referential function of Fugard's
dramatic dialogue. In this thesis I' argue that to notice just one way in which the
language functions tends to limit the text. My aim, therefore, is to look at the other
ways in which language functions in selected Fugard plays.
I explore the way in which Fugard uses dialect and sociolect to establish a stage world
that looks and sounds recognisably South African to South Africans. I investigate how
.certain assumptions (on the part of the audience) accompany the acceptance of the
stage world as 'real' and how Fugard uses subtextual inferences to force the audience
to critically re-evaluate these assumptions. I argue that the way to consciously
understand and evaluate the sub text is through a detailed investigation of the different
ways in which language functions in dramatic dialogue. Therefore, by applying
Pfister's theories on the multi functionality of dramatic dialogue to selected Fugard
plays, I look at how characters reveal themselves to the audience through the choice
of specific words, subject matter and language variant. I also investigate, by applying
Quigley's observations regarding Pinter's plays to Fugard's characters, the way in
which language reveals characters striving to negotiate their status within
relationships. My argument is that as far as characterisation and relationships are
concerned the actual referential function of the words reveals only the tip of the
iceberg - the rest lies beneath this and is to be uncovered by looking at the other ways
in which the language functions.
Finally I look at the way in which language as the medium of communication per se is
foregrounded in Fugard's plays and how this accentuates the role that language plays
in communication, as well as the failure of communication, in the South African
context. Related to this metalingual function of dramatic dialogue I investigate the
idea, put forward by Ibitokun, that language can be used as a 'mask' behind which a
person can hide his true identity. I agree with Ibitokun that this is not only a strategy
for survival but that, when consciously adopted, it is also a means for challenging the
status quo.
The Fugard plays I have selected are Master Harold ... and the boys, Boesman and
Lena, Sizwe Bansi is Dead and The Island.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die meerderheid kritici en academici het in die verlede gekonsentreer op die referensiële
funksie van dramatiese dialoog in die werke van Fugard. In hierdie tesis argumenteer ek
dat so 'n enkele gesigspunt op die rol wat taal speel neig om die teks te beperk. Derhalwe
kyk ek in die studie na die ander wyses waarop taal in geselekteerde Fugard dramas
funksioneer. .
Ek begin met 'n ondersoek na Fugard se gebruik van dialek en sosiolek om 'n wêreld op
die verhoog te skep wat herkenbaar Suid-Afrikaans klink vir Suid-Afrikaners. Hierna
bekyk ek die wyse waarop sekere aannames (deur die gehoor) saamgaan met die
aanvaarding van die "realiteit" van die verhoogwêreld en hoe Fugard subtekstuele
verwysings benut om die gehoor te dwing tot kritiese herevaluering van daardie
aannames. Die argument is voorts dat 'n gedetailleerde ontleding van die wyse waarop
taal in dramatiese dialoog fuksioneer onontbeerlik is indien mens die subteks wil verstaan
en ontleed. Deur Pfister se teorieë oor die multifunksionaliteit van dramatiese dialoog toe
te pas op geselekteerde Fugard toneeltekste, kyk ek dus hoe die onderskeie karakters
hulle aan gehore openbaar deur hul gebruik van spesifieke woorde, inhoude en
taalvariante. Ek gebruik ook Quigley se observasies oor Pinter se stukke om te bepaal tot
watter mate die taal van Fugard se karakters dui op mense wat poog om hulle status in
verhoudings te vestig. My argument is dat die referensiële funksie van taal slegs die
oppervlak van karakterisering en verhoudings verteenwoordig - die res lê dieper verberg
en moet geopenbaar word deur te kyk na die ander wyses waarop taal funksioneer.
Laastens bespreek ek die mate waartoe taal per se in Fugard se stukke na vore kom en
hoe dit die rol van taal in kommunikasie benadruk, asook die tekort daaraan in die Suid-
Afrikaanse konteks. Verwant aan hierdie metalinguistiese funksie van taal, toets ek
Ibitokun se idee dat taal 'n masker kan wees waaragter die persoon sy ware identiteit
versteek. Ek stem met Ibitokun saam dat hierdie nie slegs 'n strategie vir oorlewing is
nie, maar dat dit, doelbewus aangewend, ook gebruik kan word om die status quo te
bevraagteken.
Die Fugard tekste wat bekyk word is Master Harold ...and the boys, Boesman and Lena,
Sizwe Bansi is Dead en The Island.
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Midhin, Majeed Mohammed. "The artist as a dramatic character in contemporary British drama : a critical study of Stoppard, Barker and Wertenbaker." Thesis, University of Essex, 2017. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/20011/.
Full textAbstract:
The focus of this dissertation is the representation of the artist as a character in British theatre. In this study, which includes three chapters and one introductory chapter, I attempt to show that British playwrights, whether male or female, use their main fictional characters as artists either for self-reflexivity or to comment on the situation of being an artist. In accordance with the above premise, the responsibility of the artist and the function of art is investigated with due reference to radical thinkers, philosophers and writers such as, among others, Immanuel Kant, Oscar Wilde, Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, Walter Benjamin, Viktor Shklovsky, Bertolt Brecht and Jean-Paul Sartre. This investigation concentrates on the conceptualization and contribution of those intellectuals to the definition of the role of the artist. Though I focus mainly on the period from the 1970s to the 2000s onwards, by analysing the dramatic texts of three British playwrights: Tom Stoppard, Howard Barker, and Timberlake Wertenbaker, I also discuss the decade following John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956). In this manner, I trace the key changes that have taken place in British theatre during the second half of the 20th century. Though there is an abundance of critical material on the subject which focuses on the figure of the artist to show self-referral for the dramatist, the present thesis goes beyond that to highlight the role and responsibility of the artist in British theatre, the function of art, the potential dilemmas he or she may confront and the economic and political circumstances surrounding them. The plays examined in this thesis range from those depicting the problematic role of the artist as an intellectual, who is torn between morality and immorality, as in Stoppard’s Artist Descending a Staircase (1972) and Travesties (1974), to those which reject the utilitarian function of art, for example Barker’s No End of Blame: Scenes of Overcoming (1981) and Scenes from an Execution (1984). In the case of Wertenbaker, I highlight the role and dilemmas of female artists as they use theatre as a means to show the hegemonic political and economic constraints imposed on their artistic creativity. By analysing several of Wertenbaker’s plays which centre on the use of the artist as a character, her Three Birds Alighting on a Field (1991) and The Line (2009), reflect the relationship between male and female artists and the dilemmas they faced. This thesis poses the following questions: as a fictional character, how can the artist function as a member of a certain community whilst at the same time retain the distinctiveness of his or her role as an outsider? Is he or she committed to the creative work or to the social usefulness of society? If so, can we expect art or the artist to have the answer to society’s problems? Or is that an overly high expectation to place on the artist? How did artists feel living in a society under censorship? How can they avoid being censored? And if they failed, what is the price of free expression? Springing from the discussion about the dilemmas of the artist in British theatre, it will become apparent how these dilemmas, represented by fictional characters, bring forth the dominant plays about artists. Within the framework of the above mentioned playwrights, it is demonstrated that the pressing dilemma which radical artists are faced with nowadays are multiple: social, commercial and political.
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Satyo, Priscilla Nomsa. "Women in Xhosa drama : dramatic and cultural perspectives." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52615.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aims at highlighting a crucial aspect of Xhosa drama: The portrayal of the role
women have been forced culturally to assume in society. A selection of Xhosa plays from
three periods (1958 - 1965; 1974 - 1982; and 1988 - 1997) is examined. In the process
of the study, the analysis and the interpretation of these dramas as well as the depiction
of women characters is examined.
Authors of the ten dramas under study advocate change through the powerful forces of
gender stereotypes and culture distortions.
The attributes that the authors commonly ascribe to women characters are passivity,
irrationality, compliancy and incorrigibility. An examination of the reasons behind this
proliferation of these female stereotypes and the lack of realistic women characters is
undertaken.
The study posits reasons why particular stereotypes appear in the works of several
authors over a period of time. The women characters are products of social conditioning,
that is, ideals or counter-ideals of the prevailing values of the authors' culture. They are a
symbolic fulfillment of the writers' needs.
The broad cultural perspectives of the authors also shape the texts they produce. These
dramas treat issues and themes, which become central to the formal and structural
ordering of the drama. Such themes have an impact at times on form and structure. In
each case the ideology of the class represented by authors under study is indeed reflected
in the text, to its detriment.
The dominating themes in the ten dramas are forced marriages and women abuse. The
authors are so preoccupied with injustices against women that they distort certain cultural
aspects by, for example, exaggeration. Women are constantly depicted as victims, while
there are no indications in the authors' depictions of women that perceptions of their
cultural role and status are in reality undergoing changes. The thesis is arranged as follows:
Chapter 1 introduces the aim, the scope, the theories and the methods of the study.
Chapter 2 deals with the development of plot within episodes in the dramas of the first
literary period (1958 - 1965). These episodes depict the different phases of the dramas.
A critical evaluation of the dramas by motivating their positive and negative aspects is
undertaken.
Chapter 3 deals with the development of plot within episodes in the dramas of the second
literary period (1974 - 1982). As in the first literary period, a critical evaluation of the
dramas by motivating their positive and negative aspects is examined.
Chapter 4 deals with the development of plot within episodes in the dramas of the third
literary period (1988 - 1997). A critical evaluation of the dramas by motivating their good
and bad points is undertaken.
Chapter 5 deals with woman as character in Xhosa dramas under study. A detailed
analysis of the main woman character in each drama is undertaken. Furthermore, a
critical summary of how the woman has been portrayed in the dramas is presented.
Chapter 6 presents depiction of Xhosa culture in the Xhosa dramas. From each drama,
certain selected aspects of culture are explored and an investigation of the portrayal of
these aspects is undertaken.
Chapter 7 summarizes the findings of the study.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doelstelling van hierdie studie is om 'n kern aspek van Xhosa drama te belig: die rolle
wat vroue kultureel gedwing is om te vervul in die gemeenskap. 'n Seleksie Xhosa dramas
vanuit drie tydperke (1958 - 1965; 1974 - 1982; en 1988 - 1997) word ondersoek. In die
loop van die studie, ontleding en interpretasie van hierdie dramas word die uitbeelding
van vroue karakters ook ondersoek.
Die skrywers van die tien dramas wat bestudeer word, betoog vir verandering deur middel
van die sterk kragte van stereopites en kultureelverwronge voorstellings. Die eienskappe
wat die skrywers algemeen toeskryf aan vroue karakters is passiwiteit, irrasionele optrede,
gehoorsaamheid en deugsaamheid. 'n Ondersoek na die redes vir die proliferasie van
hierdie vroulike stereotipes en die tekortkoming aan realistiese vroue karakters in Xhosa
dramas word uitgevoer in die studie.
Die studie voer redes aan waarom bepaalde stereotipes in die werk van verskeie skrywers
oor 'n tydperk verskyn: hulle vrouekarakters is die produk van sosiale kondisionering, dit
wil sêm ideale of teen-ideale van die heersende waardes van die skrywer se kulturele
agtergrond en 'n simboliese vervulling van die skrywer se behoeftes.
Die algemene kulturele perspektiewe van die skrywers beïnvloed en vorm ook die tekste
wat hulle lewer. Hierdie dramas behandel naamlik vraagstukke tematies wat sentraalook
bepalend is ten opsigte van die vorm en struktuur van die drama. Sodanige temas het
gevolglik in bepaalde gevalle 'n invloed op die vorm en struktuur van die drama. Voorts
word die ideologie van die klas verteenwoordig deur die skrywers in elke geval
gereflekteer en die teks tot bepaalde nadele daarvan.
Die prominente temas in die tien dramas is gedwonge huwelike en vrouemishandeling.
Die skrywers is so gepre-okkupeer met die ongeregtighede teenoor vroue dat hulle
bepaalde kulturele aspekte verwring deur, byvoorbeeld, buitensporige voorstellings.
Vroue word voortdurend voorgestel as slagoffers, terwyl daar feitlik geen aanduidings is in
die skrywer se voorstelling van vroue, dat persepsies oor hulle kulturele rol en status
inderwaarheid besig is om veranderinge te ondergaan. Die proefskrif is soos volg gestruktureer:
Hoofstuk 1 gee die doelstellings, omvang, teorieë en metodes wat in die studie gevolg
word.
Hoofstuk 2 behandel die ontwikkeling van intrige binne verskillende episodes in die
dramas van die eerste literêre periode (1958 - 1965). Hierdie episodes gee 'n uitbeelding
van die verskillende fases van die dramas wat in die studie ondersoek word. 'n Kritiese
evaluering word van die dramas gedoen deur die positiewe en negatiewe aspekte daarvan
te motiveer.
Hoofstuk 3 behandel die ontwikkeling van intrige binne die episodes van die dramas van
die tweede literêre periode (1974 - 1982). Soos vir die eerste literêre periode, word 'n
kritiese evaluering gedoen van die dramas deur onder andere die positiewe en negatiewe
literêre aspekte daarvan te motiveer.
Hoofstuk 4 ondersoek die ontwikkeling van die intrige binne die episodes in die dramas
van die derde literêre periode (1988 - 1997). Die kritiese evaluering van hierdie dramas
sluit, soos vir die vorige periodes, 'n gemotiveerde beskouing in van die positiewe en
negatiewe aspekte.
Hoofstuk 5 ondersoek die vrou as karakter in die Xhosa dramas wat bestudeer word. 'n
Gedetaileerde analise van die hoof-vroue karakters in elke drama word gedoen. Daarna
word 'n kritiese oorsig aangebied van hoe die vrou voorgestel word in die dramas wat
bestudeer is.
Hoofstuk 6 bied 'n uitbeelding van Xhosa kultuur in die dramas wat ondersoek is.
Bepaalde aspekte van kultuur word vir elke drama ondersoek en die uitbeelding van
hierdie kultuur aspekte word behandel.
Hoofstuk 7 bied 'n opsomming van die belangrikste bevindinge van die studie.
33
LaReau, Brandon. "Dramatic Themes: Active Learning and Thematic Teaching in the Theatre History Classroom." VCU Scholars Compass, 2019. https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/5755.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores major texts dealing with pedagogical theory and active learning in the context of a theatre history class. By comparing a class which is taught in the traditional, chronological format relying heavily on lectures to a class taught in a newer, thematic format utilizing active learning the thesis defines what student-centered learning means. Active learning, its benefits, and its implementation are explained and explored, along with the advantages and benefits of teaching thematically instead of chronologically. All of this is applied to a theatre history class in the resulting syllabus in chapter three. The syllabus creates a curriculum which uses themes to teach theatre history, while incorporating active learning activities and assignments throughout, to the benefit of the student. Ultimately, student-centered learning and its importance are explained and demonstrated using research, observation, and creation.
34
Craig, Jennifer J. "Inventing 'living emblems' : emblem tradition in the masques of Ben Jonson, 1605-1618." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2009. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1307/.
Full textAbstract:
While it is widely held that Ben Jonson uses emblem tradition in the development of imagery in his court masques and entertainments, how or why Jonson employs this genre of word-image combinations is rarely addressed. This thesis offers an explanation for what is often assumed in studies of Jonson’s masques and entertainments. Rather than identifying particularly emblematic scenes or characters and analysing their construction, however, this investigation of the emblematic in Jonson begins with analysis of his theory of masque creation. The evidence he leaves in the introductions to masque publications and his notes in Discoveries (1641) points to a conscious decision to incorporate not emblems themselves but an emblematic method in his new literary masque form, especially between 1605 and 1618. Once Jonson’s familiarity with emblematic methods is realized, what is considered ‘emblematic’ in his imagery can be reassessed. The reason why Jonson’s masques appear to retain emblematic qualities but contain few true emblems can thus be explained. In order to explicate Jonson’s use of emblem tradition in his creation of masque imagery, this thesis is divided into three parts. The first part outlines Jonson’s theory of masque writing within three contexts. It initially looks at how Jonson’s literary methods compare to contemporary emblem and symbol theories, and thus works out a methodology for analysing the emblematic in his masques. Then, it considers the awareness of emblems in the early modern British court, both in material and intellectual culture. In so doing, these two sections on emblems in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British culture highlight the prevalence of the emblematic mindset in Jonson and his aristocratic audience. This argues for the relevance of Jonson’s emblematic development of imagery for performances in the Stuart court. The second and third parts of this thesis then turn to the masques and entertainments themselves. Part II looks at how Jonson uses emblematic techniques to design characters. Recognizing Jonson’s different approaches to abstract personifications and mythological figures, it is split into two sections. The first section looks at key personifications in The Masque of Beautie (1608) and The Masque of Queenes (1609). It considers how Jonson changes the characters Januarius and Fama bona from personifications in Ripa’s Iconologia to emblematically-rendered figures. The second section then analyses Jonson’s reinvention of stock characters Cupid and Hercules. Discussion covers Cupid’s appearance in many of Jonson’s entertainments, and then concentrates on his appearance with Anteros in A Challenge at Tilt (1613) and Loves Welcome at Bolsover (1634). Hercules’ pointedly emblematic role in Pleasure reconcild to Vertue (1618) finally crowns study of Jonson’s characters. Part III extends investigation into Jonson’s development of themes and arguments in the masques. By identifying Jonson’s processes in the expression of certain themes, this part gives a full picture of Jonson’s use of emblematic techniques and material. The first section realizes their use in the moulding of Platonic themes of love into celebration of King and State. The second section then scrutinizes the invention of the Masques of Blacknesse (1605) and Beautie, Love Freed (1611), and The Golden Age Restor’d (1615). This is followed by analysis of the changes Jonson makes to emblematic constructions between Pleasure reconcild and its rewrite For the Honour of Wales (1618). The alterations highlight Jonson’s reliance on emblematic interpretation of his entertainments. At the same time, it marks his decision to subvert his techniques after 1618 in order to cater to court tastes following the failure of Pleasure reconcild. A conclusion to this thesis is thus derived from the comparison, which illustrates Jonson’s methods up to 1618.
35
Park, Kyung Ran. "Philomela and her sisters : explorations of sexual violence in plays by British contemporary women dramatists." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1998. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/55822/.
Full textAbstract:
The theme of this thesis is women and violence explored in eleven plays by British contemporary women playwrights in the 1980s and 1990s. In order to explore these plays, I have made investigations into a basic knowledge of violence against women in the Introduction. Violence against women is also called sexual violence or gender-related violence. The knowledge I have gained includes how sexual violence is defined; why sexual violence occurs; what kinds of sexual violence there are; how people perceive sexual violence. My definition is that any act which limits the autonomy of women constitutes sexual violence. Based on a variety of definitions by feminist scholars, there are many forms of sexual violence in women's history around the world. As a result, I have found out the continuity, diversity, and universality of women's pain. The nature of sexual violence has been mistaken by many people from the perspective of prevailing myths about women's sexuality. Because of them, many women and female children become double victims. Having understood the true nature of sexual violence, I have selected eleven plays which explore women and violence: The Love of the Nightingale (1988) by Timberlake Wertenbaker; Crux (1991) by April de Angelis; The Taking of Liberty (1992) by Cheryl Robson; Augustine (Big Hysteria) (1991) by Anna Furse; The Gut Girls (1988) by Sarah Daniels; Ficky Stingers (1986) by Eve Lewis; Beside Herself (1990) by Sarah Daniels; Thatcher's Women (1987) by Kay Adshead; Money to Live (1984) by Jacqueline Rudet; Low Level Panic (1988) by Clare McIntyre; Masterpieces (1984) by Sarah Daniels. The thesis is divided into two parts depending on whether the plays are set in the past or present in order to identify the continuity of sexual violence. They depict the exercise of men's power through sexual violence. In the plays women experience violence committed by men and then they are silenced. However, the women demonstrate their fighting spirit and regain their voice or find ways to express themselves. Women's hope for change is expressed through theatre.
36
Koutsourakis, Angelos. "'A film should be like a stone in your shoe' : a Brechtian reading of Lars von Trier." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/7458/.
Full textAbstract:
This central premise of this thesis is that Lars von Trier is a political director. Through a detailed formal analysis of five films I proceed to discuss the political implications of form, something that has not been acknowledged by scholarship so far. In this thesis, I employ Brecht as a methodological tool so as to discuss the shift from a dialectical cinema devoted to the production of knowledge effects, to a post-Brechtian one that brings together points of tension that remain unresolved. Chapter 1 proceeds to a historical evaluation of Brecht's reception in film theory and considers the ways that Brecht's theory and practice can address the cinematic and political concerns of the present. The chapter also locates von Trier under the rubric of the post-Brechtian by comparing him to past film practices. Chapter 2 moves to a discussion of von Trier's Europa trilogy and focuses on issues of historical representation. Emphasis is placed on formal elements that challenge the narrative laws of classical cinema. The chapter argues that von Trier follows Brecht's mistrust of a historical representation based on pictorial verisimilitude, without however sharing his forward-looking politics and his view of history as Marxist science. Chapter 3 discusses Dogme 95 and The Idiots (1998). Firstly, the chapter discusses Dogme's combination of a political modernist rhetoric with a realist one and places Dogme's return to the past in a historical context. Secondly, the chapter considers the role of performance as a formal and thematic element in The Idiots. I draw attention to the ways that the camera becomes performative and brings together material of dramaturgical importance with moments that are the product of cinematic contingency. My discussion is very much informed by contemporary post-Brechtian performance and film studies invested in the discussion of ‘corporeal cinema'. Chapter 4 discusses Dogville, a film with obvious references to Brecht. Unlike previous readings, I shift the emphasis from the film's assumed ‘Anti-Americanism' and proceed to a formal analysis that can rethink the film's politics and innovations. While Brecht has been thought to be as a fleeting presence in von Trier's films by most critics, this thesis suggests that our knowledge of von Trier's formal innovations can be deepened and enlivened by discussing them in conjunction with Brecht's theory. By returning to Brecht, we can also rethink the importance of form as the key to a film's politics.
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Hartwell, Jonathan William. "'Skill in the construction' : dramaturgy, ideology, and interpretation in Shakespeare's late plays." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2004. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4484/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the way dramaturgical techniques in Shakespeare's late plays are used to create a complex and radical exploration of the relationship between ideology and interpretation. It links such concerns via the multiple meanings of "construction", illustrated using the scene of reading at the end of Cymbeline, centred upon the prophetic label. In Part I, major reservations are expressed about the standard interpretative paradigms applied to late Shakespearian drama, and their effect on critical understanding. The deficiencies of a "Romance" reading and the problems with traditional attitudes to chronology, authorship, and collaboration are stressed; elements often marginalized as aesthetically inferior are defended; and two related areas of dramaturgical technique, theatrical spectacle and reported action, are emphasized. Part II focuses on reading individual late plays, with special emphasis on Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen. It adopts a reconstructed, politicized close reading, concentrating on issues relating to the problematics of interpretation within the plays. Individual chapters highlight different forms of "construction": art, history, truth, authority, display, narrative. Attention is drawn to how reading and interpretation are shown to be always inscribed within power relations and the performative dynamic of language.
38
Bose, Sarika Priyadarshini. "Women as figures of disorder in the plays of Oscar Wilde." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 1999. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/5081/.
Full textAbstract:
Oscar Wilde's plays on upper-class Victorian society are set apart from contemporary drama both by their wit and their reappraisal of conventions, particularly in dealing with transgressive women. The fallen woman's prominence in popular culture and the stage during a period of intense suffragism attests to woman's role as a touchstone of moral stability, contemporary plays viewing deviant women as threats to a man's world. Wilde mocks society's confinement of women, fallen or not, into prescribed roles and undercuts customary morality but fears self-determining women's disruptive power. A tool of perceiving this ambivalence is the self-fashioning dandy, who repudiates social constraints and yet foils transgressive women's attempts at self-fashioning. The surface mockery of conventional fears of female aspirations as threats to masculine orderliness conceals a greater fear of female autonomy as a threat to masculinity itself. This study locates the dramatic and moral urgency of Wilde's five major plays, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest and Salome in this conflicting response to the feminine, which also determines his choice of theme and form both in his comedies of manners and symbolic drama.
39
Garafalo, Sanner. "'Most wonderful!' : a contextual study of twinship in early modern drama and Shakespeare's plays." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2013. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3937/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines twins as objects of wonder in early modern drama. In Wonders and the Order of Nature: 1150-1750, Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park divide the experience of wonder into three separate emotional reactions: horror, repugnance, and pleasure. The thesis builds on this model, arguing that, as objects of wonder, twins were capable of inspiring this range of emotional responses which could, consequently, be capitalized on in a dramatic work. The first three chapters consider non-Shakespearean drama and its depiction of twins as wonderful, tracing how twins emerge as either objects of horror, repugnance, or pleasure in these plays and how these depictions resonate with other circulating discussions of twinship. Chapter 1 examines the horrific depiction of twins in The Duchess of Malfi and The Cruel Brother and its relation to the monstrous and prodigious birth of the early modern broadside. Chapter 2 investigates the repugnant twins of The twins and The Love-sick Court in light of the early modern medical understanding of twins as errors in nature. And Chapter 3 begins to reveal how more pleasurable associations can override these horrific and repugnant connotations, as shown in Changes, Ignoramus, and Senile Odium. However, all of this builds toward a final analysis of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night, demonstrating how Shakespeare fully transitions twinship into the realm of the pleasurable, combatting the negative cultural assumptions about twinship with an alternate and largely revolutionary depiction of twinship as a positive characteristic.
40
Ash, Cassandra Kay. "'Look About You' : a critical edition." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2015. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6170/.
Full textAbstract:
This is a critical edition of the unattributed Admiral’s Men comedy 'Look About You', first published in 1600. The playtext has been treated according to standard editing practice: spelling and punctuation modernized, scene divisions imposed, and changes to the text collated. Full critical apparatus, including textual commentary and an expository introduction, accompanies the play. This edition views the text as a practical theatrical document, looking to performative and stageable choices first, and to thematic, stylistic, and generic influences second. The introduction is framed as a series of contextual narratives, applying methodologies from attribution and repertory studies to discuss the possibilities of authorship and date of composition. Once situated in its repertorial context (plays written for the performance at the Rose theatre between 1598-1600), the introductory matter interprets adaptation of source texts, verbal influences from contemporary drama and non-dramatic literature, and generic trends to determine a probable date of composition in 1599. The emphasis is on understanding how 'Look About You' interacts within contemporary dramatic works and how it functions as a piece meant for performance. Sections of the introduction examine these more practical aspects through dramaturgical structure, staging conditions, casting and doubling requirements, and an extended editorial practices section.
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Huston-Findley, Shirley A. "Subverting the dramatic text : folklore, feminism, and the images of women in three canonical American plays /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p9901243.
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Weiss, Katherine. "The Plays of Samuel Beckett: Author Meets the Critics." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2015. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2254.
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Weiss, Katherine. "‘Sounds like a story to me’: Fabricating the Past in Sam Shepard." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2012. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2263.
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Weiss, Katherine. "Catherine Bush: Quilts and Murder." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2008. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2272.
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Weiss, Katherine. "Sophie Treadwell's Machinal: Electrifying the Female Body." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2006. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2285.
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Weiss, Katherine. "“There’s no question that this is torture!” Electrocuting Patriotic Fervour in Sam Shepard’s The God of Hell." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2007. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2295.
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Weiss, Katherine. "Sam Shepard." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://www.amzn.com/1408134799.
Full textAbstract:
Unrivalled in its coverage of recent work and writers, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights surveys and analyses the breadth, vitality and development of theatrical work to emerge from America over the last fifty years.This authoritative guide leads you through the work of 25 major contemporary American playwrights, discussing more than 140 plays in detail. Written by a team of 25 eminent international scholars, each chapter provides:· a biographical introduction to the playwright's work; · a survey and concise analysis of the writer's most important plays; · a discussion of their style, dramaturgical concerns and critical reception; · a bibliography of published plays and a select list of critical works.Among the many Tony, Obie and Pulitzer prize-winning playwrights included are Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, August Wilson, Paula Vogel and Neil LaBute. The abundance of work analysed enables fresh, illuminating conclusions to be drawn about the development of contemporary American playwriting.
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Weiss, Katherine, Stephen Bottoms, Philip Kolin, and Michael S. D. Hooper. "A Student Handbook to the Plays of Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie; A Streetcar Named Desire; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Sweet Bird of Youth." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://www.amzn.com/1472521862.
Full textAbstract:
A Student Handbook to the Plays of Tennessee Williams provides the essential guide to Williams' most studied and revived dramas. Authored by a team of leading scholars, it offers students a clear analysis and detailed commentary on four of Williams' plays: The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth. A consistent framework of analysis ensures that whether readers are wanting a summary of the play, a commentary on the themes or characters, or a discussion of the work in performance, they can readily find what they need to develop their understanding and aid their appreciation of Williams' artistry.
A chronology of the writer's life and work helps to situate all his works in context and the introduction reinforces this by providing a clear overview of Williams' writing, its recurrent themes and concerns and how these are intertwined with his life and times. For each play the author provides a summary of the plot, followed by commentary on: * The context * Themes * Characters * Structure and language * The play in production (both on stage and screen adaptations) Questions for study, and notes on words and phrases in the text are also supplied to aid the reader.
The wealth of authoritative and clear commentary on each play, together with further questions that encourage comparison across Williams' work and related plays by other leading writers, ensures that this is the clearest and fullest guide to Williams' greatest plays.<br>https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1183/thumbnail.jpg
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McQuistion, Evin. "A Director's Approach to Annie Baker's The Aliens." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/473.
Full textAbstract:
An exploration of Annie Baker's play The Aliens through the perspective of student directing. This includes the process of research, casting, rehearsal, and performance of the play in the Spring of 2017 at East Tennessee State University.
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Gilbert, Chelsea Nicole. "The Unkindness of Strangers: Exploring Success and Isolation in the Dramatic Works of Tennessee Williams." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3225.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis aims to explore the theme of isolation in the dramatic works of Tennessee Williams using his essay “The Catastrophe of Success” as the base theory text. The essay attacks the American idea of success though an in-depth examination of the “Cinderella myth” that Williams claims is so prevalent in both Hollywood and American Democracy. Williams’ deconstruction of this myth reveals that America’s love for stories like it results the isolation of three groups: homosexuals, women and the physically disabled and terminally ill. Williams passes no judgment on his characters, instead showing their lives as they truly are. Through The Glass Menagerie (1945), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Orpheus Descending (1957) and Vieux Carre (1977), Williams gives readers and audiences a glimpse into the lives of isolated individuals, and the struggles each group faces.