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Chopoidalo, Cindy. "The drama of history, examinations in Shakespearean historiography." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ59713.pdf.
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Taylor, Miles Edward. "Nation, history, and theater : representing the English past on the Tudor and Stuart stage /." view abstract or download file of text, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9986765.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-265). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Brown, Ian. "History as theatrical metaphor : history, myth and national identities in modern Scottish drama." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/30714/.
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The completion of History as Theatrical Metaphor, now submitted for consideration for the award of the degree of Doctor of Letters, represents an integration and culmination of a number of related strands arising from both my practice as a playwright over the last five decades and my relevant academic research. Susanne Kries has summarised a key approach underlying my writing of history plays as ‘deconstructing the ideological intent behind the very endeavour of writing history and of revealing the ways by which mythologies are formed’. Much of my related academic research shares this interest. A recurring theme of both playwriting and scholarly writing, central to the work submitted, is the significance of the interaction of drama, language – especially Scots and English – and history. The initial phase in exploring such themes was in my developing professional playwriting practice. In 1967, I wrote the first draft of Mary, eventually produced by the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company in 1977. In this first version I sought to address the theme of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, but in a revisionary way. The play’s first acts, before Mary arrives on stage, involved an unlikely affair between Mary of Guise, Queen Regent in Mary’s absence in France, and her Secretary of State, Maitland of Lethington, conceived as a cross between a Chief Minister and a Mafia consigliere, a relationship in which Mary of Guise achieved some form of Lawrentian ‘authentic’ sexual release and self-fulfilment through her relationship with a powerful Scots leader. This motif was developed when Mary arrived and proceeded to fall under the magnetic spell of the even more Lawrentian Bothwell, a transformation of her sexuality and identity marked by the fact that about half way through her scenes she stopped speaking in French-inflected English and started to speak in Scots. The play’s tendentiousness was further marked by its being written in Scots-language free verse. The decision to write in Scots was consciously, if superficially, ideological. It sought to reflect the vibrant language amongst which I grew up on a council scheme, although in my home the dominant language was Standard Scottish English. I also sought to take a revisionary view of Scottish history, seeking to avoid what I saw as the sentimentalisation of that history in plays by an older generation like that of Robert McLellan. What I was concerned to do was later outlined explicitly by Tom McGrath in a 1984 interview, talking of his own practice: I suppose at that time we were coming up with a different ideology. We were coming up with a different approach after all that work, work that had been done [by writers like MacDiarmid and McLellan] in Scots language. We were coming up with this street level sound of existentialist man in the street, "black man in the ghetto" type of writing. It just upset the applecart. (Later I would develop a contextual interpretation of the shift McGrath refers to, and which I sought to be part of, in arguing that the use of Scots on stage was key to supporting and enhancing the cultural prestige of Scots in the 2011 chapter, ‘Drama as a Means for Uphaudin Leid Communities’. This – in a continuing conscious intention to assert the potential and status of Scots – while academic in content, was written entirely in Scots.) In short, from the beginning of my professional playwriting, a key strand was experiment in and exploration of the relationship of drama, Scots language, community identity and history, particularly the interrogation of accepted versions of ‘history’. The first draft of Mary came by the early 1970s to seem to me to be unsatisfactory in its exploration of the interaction of drama, language and history. By then, it appeared in its sensationalist version of Scottish history to have fallen into a parallel trap to the earlier one of a sentimental and romanticised view of that history. It certainly had moved away from conventional treatments of Scotland’s past, but was rather tending to a simplistic dramatic interpretation pour épater les bourgeois. Indeed, its attempts at sexual directness made it unacceptable at that time, 1968-69, to the management of the Royal Lyceum. While its Literary Manager Alan Brown spoke positively of the play, he still felt the company could not present it. Within very few years my own view came to be that, while it might substitute a certain late-adolescent Scots-language raunchiness for earlier playwrights’ Scots-language sentimentalities, it was itself somewhat naïve and sentimental. Further, the use of Scots in a free verse form, rather than adding anything to the dramatic potential of Scots language, seemed to remove it from the everyday discourse which inspired me to use it in the first place. This change of critical perspective and creative intention arose from two related developments in my dramaturgy. One was the impact of a variety of late 1960s theatrical experiments which impressed me in dealing with historical and political material in a post-Shavian and post-Brechtian way. These included the 1964 film version of Peter Brook's production of Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade, which I saw in 1968, John Spurling's MacRune's Guevara (1969) and Peter Nichols's The National Health (1969) in the programme of the National Theatre in London, New York’s Negro Ensemble Company's version of Peter Weiss's The Song of the Lusitanian Bogey, which is concerned with Portuguese colonial exploitation, presented in the 1969 London World Theatre Season, and John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy's version of Horatio Nelson’s life and reputation, The Hero Rises Up, presented by Nottingham Playhouse at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival. I was further impressed by the theatrical techniques of the New York-based LaMama troupe, by its version of Paul Foster's Tom Paine (1967) and the popularised and commercialised exploitation of those techniques in Hair (1967). I had also read Foster's Heimskringla! Or The Stoned Angels (1970), written for LaMama and derived from Norse sagas. All employed varying metatheatrical techniques to deconstruct received versions of history and politics which extended my own understanding of what was creatively possible. The second development was that, as those plays affected my understanding of theatrical possibilities in exploring historically based themes, I was researching and beginning to draft my next play on a historical theme. This explored the life, business ethics and politics of Andrew Carnegie. On top of all of this, at this time, having showed Max Stafford-Clark, Artistic Director of the Traverse Theatre, a first draft of Carnegie, begun during the autumn of 1969, I was invited by him to work, in my first professional theatre role, as a writing assistant on the first Traverse Workshop Theatre Company production, Mother Earth (1970), directed by Stafford-Clark when he ceased to be director of the Traverse itself. With his new company, he was developing the deconstructionist and improvisational rehearsal techniques that would later be more widely thought of as the creative method of his Joint Stock Theatre Company, into which the Traverse Workshop Company morphed in 1974. The dramaturgical lessons learned from the examples cited above and by working with such a creative and methodologically innovative director as Stafford-Clark were allied to my own quizzical view of Carnegie’s reputation. This was partly derived from the fact that my great-grandfather was a first cousin of Carnegie’s. There were family stories which, if they did not fully undermine his philanthropic reputation, suggested there were other sides to his career.
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Walsh, Maeve. "Re:vision : the interpretation of history in contemporary Irish drama." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.286613.
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Millet, Sandra Kay. "Theatre History in the Secondary Drama Classroom and Beyond." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2012. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3507.
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Current Utah State Core Standards for Theatre require that theatre history be taught at levels II (Standard 3 Objective C), III (Standard 4 Objective D), and IV (Standard 4 Objectives A and D) of high school drama classes. However, a 2011 survey of Utah high school theatre teachers indicates that only 54% include theatre history as an "important" or "very important" part of their curriculum, while another 36% say they "touch on it." This thesis is designed to be a resource for secondary drama teachers in integrating theatre history pedagogy into their drama classes, in an engaging and performance-based manner that builds on activities that are usually already present in the curriculum. It also suggests methods for crossing the curricular divide and using theatre history projects to enrich students' experiences in other core and elective classes. As continued funding for the arts in our secondary schools is threatened in the current economic climate, it unfortunately becomes increasingly important for theatre programs to demonstrate the ability to collaborate with and enhance other disciplines, as we focus on producing graduates with high-level cognitive skills.
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Piatt, Wendy Louisa. "Politics and religion in Renaissance closet drama." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.287042.
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Pruitt, John. "British drama museums : history, heritage, and nation in collections of dramatic literature, 1647-1814 /." View abstract, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3203336.
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Sherlow, Lois Juanita. "Towards interculturalism: A critical history of contemporary drama in Canada." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/10363.
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In the late sixties in Canada, the emerging alternative theatre adapted dramaturgical models, many of them from the international countercultural movement of the period, which served as means of challenging the primacy of the playwright and of creating a new decentralized iconography of the Canadian people. In the process of doing so, however, this theatre left many colonialist practices unexamined, and effectively succeeded in disseminating nationalist or centralizing mythologies of utopian populism. Thus, the suppressive effects of colonialism were ironically prolonged as the new nationalist theatre continued to produce marginalizing effects. This study reframes critical perspectives on contemporary theatrical values and practices in Canada by revisiting the ways in which colonialist representation inscribed subordination and marginality in the first place. Since 1980, there has been a significant subversion and effacement of nationalist ideology by the very groups which had been suppressed by the universalizations of populism. In addition, the adoption by many practitioners of decentred, postmodern textuality combined with experimentation in interdisciplinary techniques has created performance modes more adaptable to cultural reality. In Canadian theatre of the nineties, it has become common practice to historicize unitary narratives of culture and self-identity and to construct, instead, intercultural texts which acknowledge the co-presence of universality and difference, and which assist in drawing spectators with diverse cultural expectations into communal experience.
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O'Donnell, David O'Donnell, and n/a. "Re-staging history : historiographic drama from New Zealand and Australia." University of Otago. Department of English, 1999. http://adt.otago.ac.nz./public/adt-NZDU20070523.151011.
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Since the 1980s, there has been an increasing emphasis on drama, in live theatre and on film, which re-addresses the ways in which the post-colonial histories of Australia and New Zealand have been written. Why is there such a focus on �historical� drama in these countries at the end of the twentieth century and what does this drama contribute to wider debates about post-colonial history? This thesis aims both to explore the connections between drama and history, and to analyse the interface between live and recorded drama.
In order to discuss these issues, I have used the work of theatre and film critics and historians, supplemented by reference to writers working in the field of post-colonial and performance theory. In particular, I have utilised the methods of Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins in Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics, beginning with their claim that in the post-colonial situation history has been seen to determine reality itself. I have also drawn on theorists such as Michel Foucault, Linda Hutcheon and Guy Debord who question the �truth� value of official history-writing and emphasize the role of representation in determining popular perceptions of the past. This discussion is developed through reference to contemporary performance theory, particularly the work of Richard Schechner and Marvin Carlson, in order to suggest that there is no clear separation between performance and reality, and that access to history is only possible through re-enactments of it, whether in written or performative forms.
Chapter One is a survey of the development of �historical� drama in theatre and film from New Zealand and Australia. This includes discussion of the diverse cultural and performative traditions which influence this drama, and establishment of the critical methodologies to be used in the thesis. Chapter Two examines four plays which are intercultural re-writings of canonical texts from the European dramatic tradition. In this chapter I analyse the formal and thematic strategies in each of these plays in relation to the source texts, and ask to what extent they function as canonical counter-discourse by offering a critique of the assumptions of the earlier play from a post-colonial perspective. The potential of dramatic representation in forming perceptions of reality has made it an attractive forum for Maori and Aboriginal artists, who are creating theatre which has both a political and a pedagogical function. This discussion demonstrates that much of the impetus towards historiographic drama in both countries has come from Maori and Aboriginal writers and directors working in collaboration with white practitioners. Such collaborations not only advance the project of historiographic drama, but also may form the basis of future theatre practice which departs from the Western tradition and is unique to each of New Zealand and Australia. In Chapter Three I explore the interface between live and recorded performance by comparing plays and films which dramatise similar historical material. I consider the relative effectiveness of theatre and film as media for historiographic critique. I suggest that although film often has a greater cultural impact than theatre, to date live theatre has been a more accessible form of expression for Maori and Aboriginal writers and directors. Furthermore, following theorists such as Brecht and Brook, I argue that such aspects as the presence of the live performer and the design of the physical space shared by actors and audience give theatre considerable potential for creating an immediate engagement with historiographic themes. In Chapter Four, I discuss two contrasting examples of recorded drama in order to highlight the potential of film and television as media for historiographic critique. I question the divisions between the documentary and dramatic genres, and use Derrida�s notion of play to suggest that there is a constant slippage between the dramatic and the real, between the past and the present. In Chapter Five, I summarize the arguments advanced in previous chapters, using the example of the national museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, to illustrate that the �performance� of history has become part of popular culture. Like the interactive displays at Te Papa, the texts studied in this thesis demonstrate that dramatic representation has the potential to re-define perceptions of historical �reality�. With its superior capacity for creating illusion, film is a dynamic medium for exploring the imaginative process of history is that in the live performance the spectator symbolically comes into the presence of the past.
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Streete, Adrian George Thomas. "Calvinism, subjectivity and early modern drama." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/12800.
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This thesis examines the connections between Calvinism and early modern subjectivity as expressed in the drama produced during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. By looking at a range of theological, medical, popular, legal and polemical writings, the thesis aims to provide a new historical and theoretical reading of Calvinist subjectivity that both develops and departs from previous scholarship in the field. Chapter one examines the critical question of 'authority' in early modern Europe. I trace the various classical and medieval antecedents that reinscribed Christ with political authority during the period, and show how the Reformers' conception of conscience arises out of this movement. In chapter two, I offer a parallel reading of Reformed semiotics in relation to the individual's response to two specific loci of power, the Church and the stage. Chapter three brings the first two chapters together by outlining the development of Calvinist doctrine in early modem England. Chapter four offers a theoretical reading of the early modern 'unconscious' in relation to the construction of England as a Protestant nation state against the threat of Catholicism. In the next four chapters, I show how the stage provided the arena for the exploration of Calvinist subjectivities through readings of four early modern plays. Chapter five deals with Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and in particular the Calvinist conception of Christ interrogated throughout the play. Chapter six looks at The Revenger's Tragedy in relation to the question of masculine lineage and the Name-of-the-(Calvinist)-Father. Finally, in chapters seven and eight, I examine two of William Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. In the first, I demonstrate how the play's concern with witchcraft brings about a parody of providential discourse that is crucial to an understanding of Macbeth's subjectivity. And in the second, I excavate the use of the biblical book of Revelation in Antony and Cleopatra in order to show how an understanding of the text's 'religious' concerns problematises more mainstream readings of the drama.
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Green, Sean Douglas. "History at Play in the Portrayal of Politicians in Canadian Drama." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/34602.
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This thesis intends to focus on certain playwrights’ creative fascination and complex relationship with ‘politicians as subject’ who have been elevated to the rank of ‘greatness’ in part through their work. More specifically, it serves as a study into how playwrights mold certain politicians’ images, a type of creative investment that in turn helps craft, (re) affirm, or deconstruct the politician as a ‘cultural symbol.’ Using a historigraphic model based on Paul Ricoeur and Hayden White’s work, this thesis explores the dramaturgical approaches used by ‘artist-historian’ playwrights when creating dramatic figures inspired by Canadian politicians. In particular, it examines Linda Griffiths’ portrayal of Pierre Elliot Trudeau in Maggie and Pierre, David Fennario’s portrayal of René Lévesque in The Death of René Lévesque, and Allan Stratton’s portrayal of William Lyon Mackenzie King in Rexy!
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Cavanagh, Dermot Paul. "Covert enmity : history and the dramatic imagination in the Tudor drama." Thesis, University of Sunderland, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.333928.
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Vodden, Amy. "A cultural history of male homosexuality in twentieth-century American drama." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.438739.
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Hanson, Richard Russell. "Principal witness, Herbert Whittaker and Canadian drama, 1949-1975." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ41549.pdf.
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McBain, James. "Early Tudor drama and legal culture, c. 1485-1558." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670056.
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Heuer, Imke. "'The German's tale' : German history, English drama and the politics of adaptation." Thesis, University of York, 2008. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14111/.
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This thesis investigates the adaptation history of Harriet Lee's novella 'Kruitzner, or The German's Tale' (1801). Published in The Canterbury Tales, a collection of novellas by Harriet Lee and her sister Sophia, 'Kruitzner' is now largely remembered as the source of Byron's tragedy Werner (1822) . However, in addition to Werner, the story was incarnated as a closet drama (1802) by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, in collaboration with her sister Harriet, Countess of Bessbororough; a stage play by Lee herself (1825), and a stage adaptation of Werner by William Charles Macready (1830).
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Aronson, Shari Gay 1966. "La carpa: A descriptive model for teaching history through drama in education." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278492.
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This model proposes an approach for teaching history through drama in education. The program uses the framework of la carpa, a Mexican American theatrical tradition. Participants develop historical knowledge and skills of expression while they learn to use their own lives as a key to understanding the lives of others. In the past two decades in the U.S., drama teachers and youth project leaders have been employing social drama to encourage adolescents to express their fears, frustrations and experiences. As with the tradition of la carpa, the scripts reveal sentiments that may not be able to be spoken safely elsewhere. In contrast to the production of classic, scripted plays, social drama provides participants with the opportunity to create their own material using their own lives as primary resources. In addition to challenging participants aesthetically, the teaching model of la carpa fosters interpersonal development.
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Nweba, Lena. "Characterisation in isiXhosa drama with specific reference to two isiXhosa dramas." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/49878.
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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The main aim of study is to investigate characterisation in two of Ngewu's dramas. Ngewu's dramas are contemporary and many scholars have not yet had time to research them. The story in the drama Amadada la afunani ezintsaneni ?( 1998), is about the sexual abuse of children. This is new because the abuse of small children is not seen to indicate culture especially now that even fathers abuse their children. In the olden days children used to look to grown -ups for protection of every kind. The story in the second drama Yeha Mfazi Obulala Indada (1997) , is about a wife who hires assassins to kill her husband. In the past wives were submissive to their husbands. It was unheard of a wife challenging the husband's authority, let alone hiring assassins to kill him. Chapter 1 introduces the aim, the scope, the theories and the methods of the study. Chapter 2 deals with the plot structure of the dramas Amadada la afunani ezintsaneni? (1998) and Yeha Mfazi Obulala Indada (1997) Chapter 3 deals with characterisation in isiXhosa dramas, Amadada la afunani ezintsaneni(1998) and Yeha Mfazi Obulala lndoda (1997) Chapter 4 deals with language and the pattern of stylistic devices Chapter 5 concludes the findings of the study.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die hoofdoel van hierdie studie is om die karakterisering in twee van Ngewu se dramas te ondersoek. Ngewu se dramas is hedendaagse daarom is daar nog veel navorsing daaroor ezintsaneni (1998) gedoen nie. Die storie in die drama Amadoda la afunani handel hoofsaaklik oor die seksuele molestering van kinders. Seksuele kindemolestering is In relatiewe nuwe versknser want dit is taboe in kultuur veral nou dat die bekend is dat kinders deur hulle vaders gemolesteer word. In vroeer jare was kinders van volwassens afhanklik vir beskermering en welvaart. Die tweede drama Yeha Mfazi Obulala lndoda (1997) handeloor I vrou wat sluipmoordenaars huur om haar man om die lewe te bring. In vroeer jare was vroue aan hul mans onderdaning. Dit was ongewoon dat I vrou haar man se gesag sou ondermyn, en nog meer ondenkbaar die huur van sluipmoordenaars om hom om die lewe te bring. In hoofstuk 1 vind ons die doel van die studie, die omvang ,teoretiese raamwerk en metode van die studie. Hoofstuk 2 handeloor die struktuur van die twee Amadoda la afunani ezintsaneni (1998) en Yeha Mfazi Obulala Indoda ( 1997) Hoofstuk 3 handeloor die karakterisering in die isiXhosa dramas, Amadoda la afunani ezintsaneni (1998) en Yeha Mfazi Obulala Indoda (1997) Hoofstuk 4 handeloor die taal en skryfstyl van die skrywer. Hoofstuk 5 bevat die samevatting van die studie.
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Reilly, Kara. "Automata : a spectacular history of the mimetic faculty /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/10235.
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Li, Jing. "Self in community: twentieth-century American drama by women." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2016. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/322.
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This thesis argues that twentieth-century American women playwrights spearhead the drama of transformation, and their plays become resistance discourses that protest, subvert, or change the representation of the female self in community. Many create antisocial, deviant, and self-reflexive characters who become misfits, criminals, or activists in order to lay bare women's moral-psychological crises in community. This thesis highlights how selected women playwrights engage with, and question various dominant, regional, racial, or ethnic female communities in order to redefine themselves. Sophie Treadwell's Machinal and Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother are representative texts that explore how the dominant culture can pose a barrier for radical women who long for self-fulfillment. To cultivate their personhood, working class Caucasian women are forced to go against their existing community so as to seek sexual freedom and reproductive rights, which are regarded as new forms of resistance or transgression. While they struggle hard to conform to the traditional, gendered notion of female altruism, self-sacrifice and care ethics, they cannot hide their discontent with the gendered division of labor. They are troubled doubly by the fact that they have to work in the public sphere, but conform to their gender roles in the private sphere. Different female protagonists resort to extreme homicidal or suicidal measures in order to assert their radical, contingent subjectivities, and become autonomous beings. By becoming antisocial or deviant characters, they reject their traditional conformity, and emphasize the arbitrariness and performativity of all gender roles. Treadwell and Norman both envision how the dominant Caucasian female community must experience radical changes in order to give rise to a new womanhood. Using Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun as examples, this thesis demonstrates the difficulties women may face when living in disparate communities. The selected texts show that Southern women and African-American women desperately crave for their distinct identities, while they long to be accepted by others. Their subjectivity is a constant source of anxiety, but some women can form strong psychological bonds with women from the same community, empowering them to make new life choices. To these women, their re-fashioned self becomes a means to reexamine the dominant white culture and their racial identity. African-American women resist the discourse of assimilation, and re-identify with their African ancestry, or pan-Africanism. In the relatively traditional southern community, women can subvert the conventional southern belle stereotypes. They assert their selfhood by means of upward mobility, sexual freedom, or the rejection of woman's reproductive imperative. The present study shows these women succeed in establishing their personhood when they refuse to compromise with the dominant ways, as well as the regional, racial communal consciousness. Maria Irene Fornes' Fefu and Her Friends and Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles are analyzed to show how women struggle to claim their dialogic selfhood in minoritarian communities (New England Community and Jewish Community). Female protagonists maintain dialogues with other women in the same community, while they choose their own modes of existence, such as single parenthood or political activism. The process of transformation shows that women are often disturbed by their moral consciousness, a result of their acceptance of gender roles and their submission to patriarchal authority. Their transgressive behaviors enable them to claim their body and mind, and strive for a new source of personhood. Both playwrights also advocate women's ability to self-critique, to differentiate the self from the Other, to allow the rise of an emergent self in the dialectical flux of inter-personal and intra-personal relations. The present study reveals that twentieth-century American female dramatists emphasize relationality in their pursuit of self. However, the transformation of the self can only be completed by going beyond, while remaining in dialogue with the dominant, residual, or emergent communities. For American women playwrights, the emerging female selves come with a strong sense of "in-betweenness," for it foregrounds the individualistic and communal dimensions of women, celebrating the rise of inclusive, mutable, and dialogic subjectivities.
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Park, Choon-Keun. "Identity, society, and history in modern Korean plays three aspects of three modern Korean plays; Moonlight play, Material man, and Terrorists /." Oxford, Ohio : Miami University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=miami1145642426.
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Ramukosi, Patrick Mbulaheni. "Modern tragedy : a critical analysis of the elements of tragedy with special reference to N.A. Milubi's plays." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2336.
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Warner, Kathleen Marie. "Historical theory, popular culture and television drama /." [St. Lucia, Qld.], 2005. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe19144.pdf.
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Manossa, Geraldine, and University of Lethbridge Faculty of Arts and Science. "The roots of Cree drama." Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Arts and Science, 2002, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/227.
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This study examines the foundation of contemporary Cree performance, tracing its existence to traditional Cree narratives. Contained within traditional Cree stories is the trickster, Wasakaychak. These oral stories are shared collectively, providing the community with relevant cultural knowledge. The thesis concludes that contemporary Cree playwrights and performers such as Shirley Cheechoo and Margo Kane maintain the roles of traditional storytellers because their work informs its audience about the history of the land and also comments on the state of the community. This study further demonstrates how the mythological character, Wasakaychak, remains an active part of Cree society by examining his significance within Tomson Highway's plays, The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to kapuskasing.v, 107 leaves ; 28 cm.
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McFrederick, Matt. "Staging Beckett : a production history of Samuel Beckett's drama in London (1955-2010)." Thesis, University of Reading, 2017. http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/78067/.
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This study presents the first performance history of Samuel Beckett’s drama in London theatres. The study focuses on a selection of professional productions of Beckett’s dramatic canon and assesses the impact these performances had on London and British theatre cultures between 1955 and 2010. Since the British premiere of Waiting for Godot, Beckett’s oeuvre has been staged across a variety of London theatres and contexts, ranging from the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith to the Theatre Royal Stratford East. The performance histories of Beckett’s plays represent a neglected facet of Beckett studies, but through research undertaken for the Staging Beckett Database – a searchable data model for Beckett performances staged in the UK and Ireland – a broad tradition of staging Beckett in the British Isles has been discovered. Through the support of these records, performance histories, theatre historiography and performance archives, the study shows how Beckett’s drama featured in key London theatres during prominent moments in British theatre history in a series of landmark and lesser known productions and seasons. By means of a chronological structure, this account examines the factors that contributed to Beckett’s role in metropolitan theatre cultures, discussing how his theatre was created and received and the legacies or significance of his drama on the city’s theatrical landscape. Beckett’s evolving stature and the multifunctional role he played in London theatre cultures is reflected in the four chapters that investigate the history. Chapters one and two reveal the key partnerships he established in theatres such as the English Stage Company at the Royal Court and the National Theatre, and the eclectic range of performances from the international productions during the World Theatre Seasons to the multiple presentations of his drama for young theatregoers at the newly started Young Vic. Chapter three examines the development of Beckett’s practice through some of his last productions staged or rehearsed at the Royal Court, Riverside Studios and the National Theatre. The final chapter discusses performances post-Beckett, when his drama proliferated across London, from West End productions with star actors to Festivals celebrating his entire canon.
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Speed, Helena Christina. "The influence of the Inns of Court on English Renaissance drama 1584-1594." Thesis, University of Reading, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.262855.
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Howe, Elizabeth. "The impact of the introduction of actresses on English drama, 1660-1700." Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 1988. http://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/381ad106-a7de-4394-ae50-3c320741ed15/1/.
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The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the dramatic results of introducing women to replace boy-actors in female roles on the public stage. The impact of the actresses is examined in terms of both the general dramatic consequences of changing the sex of a performer from male to female and the individual influences of the various major actresses who emerged. The thesis begins with an investigation of the exploitation of the female physique in Restoration drama. It examines the treatment of breeches roles after 1660 and shows how sexual relationships in both comedy and tragedy could be substantially changed through the visual, physical dimension provided by real women. The ensuing chapters explore the way in which playwrights were influenced by the popular success of leading actresses in certain types of role and wrote plays around these women and their specialities. In particular, the genesis and development of she-tragedy, the gay couple, the prostitute-mistress figure and the pairing of contrasting female types is traced in relation to the actresses who made these conventions and characters popular. Thus the presence of a particular actress at a particular time may be seen to have crucially affected the course of the drama. The thesis also examines the impact of the actresses' own actual or reputed characters on the roles written for them. It seeks to ascertain the exact nature of the relationship between the leading actresses and their public and how far spectators' knowledge of the women's own personalities affected the type of roles they were given. The study concludes with a brief comment on the scope and general nature of the actresses' influence on Restoration drama.
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Jaros, Michael Perin. ""To Have Lived is Not Enough for Them" performing Irish history in the twentieth century /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2008. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3307371.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed February 6, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-215).
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Nagase, Mariko. "Literary editing of seventeenth-century English drama." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3628/.
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This thesis explores how literary editing for the dramatic publication was developed in seventeenth-century England. Chapter 1 discusses how the humanist scholars embraced the concept of textual editing and put it into practice about a half century after the invention of the press. Chapter 2 addresses the development of the concept of literary editing in seventeenth-century England by investigating the editorial arguments preserved in the paratextual matter. Chapter 3 explores Jonsonian convention of textual editing which was established in imitation of classical textual editing of the humanist scholars and which eventually furnished a model for dramatic editing to the later editors who were to be commissioned to reproduce play texts for a reading public. Chapter 4 looks at Thomas Middleton’s The Mayor of Quinborough published by Herringman in 1661 which signals the restoration of the Jonsonian editorial convention. Chapter 5 will attempt to identify the printer of the play and considers the division of the editorial work between the editor and the printer. Chapter 6 addresses the reflection of the Jonsonian textual editing in the 1664 Killigrew folio and assesses its establishment of literary editing of seventeenth-century English drama as a herald of the 1709 Shakespeare edition by Nicholas Rowe.
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齊曉楓 and Hsiao-feng Chi. "Patterns of husband selection in traditional Chinese fiction and drama." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1998. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31238312.
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Mateer, Megan. "Living history as performance an analysis of the manner in which historical narrative is developed through performance /." Connect to this title online, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1136660752.
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Macbeth, Georgia School of Theatre Film & Dance UNSW. "A Plurality of Identities: Ulster Protestantism in Contemporary Northern Irish Drama." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Theatre, Film and Dance, 1999. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/33257.
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This thesis examines the ways in which Ulster Protestant identity has been explored in contemporary Northern Irish drama. The insecurity of the political and cultural status of Ulster Protestants from the Home Rule Crises up until Partition led to the construction and maintenance of a distinct and unified Ulster Protestant identity. This identity was defined by concepts such as loyalty, industriousness and ???Britishness???. It was also defined by a perceived opposite ??? the Catholicism, disloyalty and ???Irishness??? of the Republic. When the Orange State began to fragment in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so did notions of this singular Ulster Protestant identity. With the onset of the Troubles in 1969 came a parallel questioning and subversion of this identity in Northern Irish drama. This was a process which started with Sam Thompson???s Over the Bridge in 1960, but which began in earnest with Stewart Parker???s Spokesong in 1975. This thesis examines Parker???s approach and subsequent approaches by other dramatists to the question of Ulster Protestant identity. It begins with the antithetical pronouncements of Field Day Theatre Company, which were based in an inherently Northern Nationalist ideology. Here, the Ulster Protestant community was largely ignored or essentialised. Against this Northern Nationalist ideology represented by Field Day have come broadly revisionist approaches, reflecting the broader cultural context of this thesis. Ulster Protestant identity has been explored through issues of history and myth, ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. More recent explorations of Ulster Protestantism have also added to this diversity by presenting the little acknowledged viewpoint of extreme loyalism. Dramatists examined in this thesis include Stewart Parker, Christina Reid, Frank McGuinness, Bill Morrison, Ron Hutchinson, Marie Jones, Graham Reid, Robin Glendinning and Gary Mitchell. The work of Charabanc Theatre Company is also discussed. What results from their efforts is a diverse and complex Ulster Protestant community. This thesis argues that the concept of a singular Ulster Protestant identity, defined by its loyalty and Britishness, is fragmented, leading to a plurality of Ulster Protestant identities.
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Inoue, Megumi. "Oshichi, the greengrocer's daughter : a cultural history of sewamono, 1686-1821 /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/11146.
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Oh, Seiwoong. "The Scholarly Trickster in Jacobean Drama: Characterology and Culture." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1993. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278216/.
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Whereas scholarly malcontents and naifs in late Renaissance drama represent the actual notion of university graduates during the time period, scholarly tricksters have an obscure social origin. Moreover, their lack of motive in participating in the plays' events, their ambivalent value structures, and their conflicting dramatic roles as tricksters, reformers, justices, and heroes pose a serious diffculty to literary critics who attempt to define them. By examining the Western dramatic tradition, this study first proposes that the scholarly tricksters have their origins in both the Vice in early Tudor plays and the witty slave in classical comedy. By incorporating historical, cultural, anthropological, and psychological studies, this essay also demonstrates that the scholarly tricksters are each a Jacobean version of the archetypal trickster, who is usually associated with solitary habits, motiveless intrusion, and a double function as selfish buffoon and cultural hero. Finally, this study shows that their ambivalent value structures reflect the nature of rhetorical training in Renaissance schools.
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Davis, Laurel F. "Voyage to Terra Australis." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1648.
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This thesis in Writing is composed of two parts, a creative work for stage, and an essay that both informs the writing of the drama and reflects upon it. The creative work, entitled Ann Flinders Remembers, a musical drama based on the life and journals of Matthew Flinders, navigator and cartographer, and his wife, Ann Flinders. The drama consists of lyrics, letters, extracts, dialogue, monologue, and stage directions, the story told from the point of view of Ann Flinders remembering, and by the all-knowing Chorus, of early Greek theatre. The essay, entitled 'Reflections on and of the Pastoral', traces the genre from the early Greek plays through to more recent theatre, and precedes the creative work to show how I came to the point of writing a musical drama based on the Pastoral genre, and what literature and theory might have been an influence. In the essay, I challenge some widely held conceptions of the Pastoral, at the same time re-acquainting myself with the techniques used by dramatists throughout history. Such a course enables me to reveal the habit of mind that lies at the source of the ancient genre.
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Cerniglia, Kenneth James. "Becoming American : a critical history of ethnicity in popular theatre, 1849-1924 /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/10236.
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GRAY, FRED ALLEN. "CHILDREN'S MUSICALS, 1973-1985: ANNOTATIONS WITH SOURCEBOOK FOR PRODUCTION (DRAMA, ELEMENTARY, HISTORY, VOICE, CHORAL)." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/188089.
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The purpose of this study was to collect and annotate the musical dramas for children of elementary school age published since 1972. Musical dramas selected were limited to those having a story line rather than just a narrator and chorus, having dialogue interaction between the characters, containing mostly original music, and written for grades kindergarten through six. This document is intended as a resource for elementary school teachers and church workers who are searching for appropriate material for performance or study. Annotations of 210 musicals for children, sacred and secular, are the main emphasis of the study. Pertinent information in each annotation includes: basic story line, voice span (extreme range of the music), tessitura (range where most of the tones lie), recommended grade level, duration, type of accompaniment available, 1985 prices and required purchase for performance rights, staging requirements, number and characteristics of the songs, and personnel needed. Musicals were obtained through publishers, music retailers, and leasing firms. A part of the study is a history of musical drama in America and in America's schools. Musical drama has been a part of elementary education in America almost from its inception. The first musical drama in America was presented in Charleston, S.C., in 1735, and the first school music drama was presented in New York in 1853. Because children's musicals involve the child voice, information is contained in the study concerning practices which might cause vocal damage. Current research and theory about children's voice range is reported. Opinion is divided about proper natural voice range for children. Each viewpoint has supporting research. The study shows that an abundance of musical drama material is available for children of elementary age, especially the upper grades. A sourcebook for directors and producers of children's musicals has been included to assist those who have a limited knowledge of stage lighting, choreography, make-up, sound systems, sets, and costumes. Suggestions are provided for choosing a musical, holding auditions, scheduling rehearsals, and involving parents and community. 1973 was selected as the beginning date for inclusion of musicals in the study because of the resurgence of writing and publishing elementary school musicals and because of the growing number of musicals written for church children's groups. Recommended areas for further research concerning children's musicals include the present usage figures for published musicals, an annotated list of musicals using only narrators and choir, and usage figures of musicals by geographic areas.
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Mavromatidou, Eleni. "The Role Of The (Postcolonial) Intellectual/Critic: Textualization Of History As Trauma: The African American And Modern Greek Paradigm." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1213616340.
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Turner, Irene. "Farce on the borderline with special reference to plays by OscarWilde, Joe Orton and Tom Stoppard." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1987. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31949204.
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Botha, Estelle. "Where dance and drama meet again : aspects of the expressive body in the 20th century." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1704.
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Thesis (MDram (Drama))—University of Stellenbosch, 2006.Acknowledging theatrical styles such as physical theatre, Tanztheater and poor theatre as forms of ‘total theatre’, and recognizing that there has been a prolonged process of development to reach such a point, the first chapter investigates the historical divide between dramatic dance and drama as starting point. Subsequently, in considering the body as expressive medium, the impact of content and form on the training of the performers’ body for the theatrical context is also evaluated.
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Kennedy, Shane Michael. "Expressionist Art and Drama Before, During, and After the Weimar Republic." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2508.
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Expressionism was the major literary and art form in Germany beginning in the early 20th century. It flourished before and during World War I and continued to be the dominant art for of the Early Weimar Republic. By 1924, Neue Sachlichkeit replaced Expressionism as the dominant art form in Germany. Many Expressionists claimed they were never truly apart of Expressionism. However, in the periodization and canonization many of these young artists are labeled as Expressionist.
This thesis examines the periodization and canonization of Expression in art, drama, and film and proves that Expressionism began much earlier than scholars believe and ended much later than 1924. This thesis examines the conflicts in Germany that led to Expressionism and which authors and artists influenced Expressionists. It will also show that after Expressionism ceased to be the dominant art form in Germany, many former Expressionists continued to use expressionistic form in their works but ceased to use expressionistic content. This thesis argues that both the periodization and canonization of Expressionism should be expanded to include all works that may be classified as having expressionistic form.
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Faasen, Cornelia. "Theatre as alternative historical narrative : a study of three plays : "Ubu and the Truth Commission", "Copenhagen" and "Ghetto"." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/3006.
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Thesis (MDram (Drama))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.In this thesis I examine the way in which fictionalised and dramatised narratives in theatre have the potential to create significant alternative narratives that can potentially be regarded as a crucial part of history writing. This is done through a critical analysis of three historically orientated dramatic texts, Ubu and the Truth Commission by Jane Taylor (1998), Copenhagen by Michael Frayn (1998) and Ghetto by Joshua Sobol (1984). I investigate how these playwrights narrativised history by fictionalising and dramatising events and people of historical importance, and how each of these plays individually contributes to the debate on narrative in historiographical discourse. Drawing on Hayden White’s theory on the poetic and narrative nature of history writing, as represented by his definitive work, Metahistory, I explore different theories and works on the philosophy of history to determine the precise nature of narrative itself as well as the historical work. Chapter Two is therefore an exploration of White’s philosophy on the ‘historical imagination’ as he describes his theory on the narrative and poetic nature of the historical document. In addition, this chapter provides an introduction to narrative in a theatrical text. This is done in order to examine how we can apply White’s theory to investigate narrative in theatre that focuses on historical events for the purpose of possibly including the dramatic narrative in the broader discourse on narrative in history writing. In this I highlight the theatrical narrative as a specific practice of language beginning with an interlude on representation in theatre. This is applied as the basis for examining the three texts in subsequent chapters. There are both general and more specific advantages in pursuing these arguments. Firstly, it may generate an understanding of some of the broad claims and problems bearing on the impact that literary theory is said to have on a subject which is not normally considered to fall within its domain, namely history writing. The work of Hayden White has been singled out to represent these claims, as he challenges the traditional distinction between history and literature. As a result, we are made aware of those arguments which set out to show that there are aspects of historical writing which are often ignored or which we generally overlook. An example of such an aspect that serve as the focus of this study is the narrative in historical explanation, representing the “ineluctably poetic nature of the historical work” (White 1983:xi). As such theatre can be an important tool in the process of constructing memory and alternative narratives, arguing that these narrativised histories could provide a “countermemory to the dominant narrative of the official histories” (Hutchison 1999:3). The theatrical texts singled out demonstrate that these alternative narratives in the theatrical texts function as a discourse of multi-levelled stories that engage with the complexities of the society and the complexities present in the context of the plays, making a contribution to the practice of historiography itself.
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Lyssa, Alison. "Performing Australia's black and white history acts of danger in four Australian plays of the early 21st century /." Thesis, Electronic version, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/714.
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Thesis (MA)--Macquarie University (Division of Humanities, Department of English), 2006.Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in English in the Division of Humanities, Dept. of English, 2006. Bibliography: p. 199-210.
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Wong, Chi-keung Frederick, and 黃志強. "Postmodernism, drama, language: Waiting for Godot and Inadmissible evidence revisited." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1994. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31951053.
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Clemson, Frances Vida Amy. "The theology of Dorothy L. Sayers' dramatic works : dramatic performance and the 'continual showing forth of God's act in history'." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/11123.
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This thesis explores the potential fruitfulness of drama for Christian theology through a close analysis of particular dramatic works by Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957). This project contends that to determine the extent to which drama can be more than a mere metaphor in theological writing, it is vitally important for theologians to attend to specific instances of dramatic performance. The approach of this project is, therefore, one of taking time over particular plays, examined with sensitivity to the circumstances of the original productions of these works. Through such close study of Sayers’ plays, a case is made for drama’s capacity to show forth God’s action in history. At the heart of the theology which emerges from the plays is an incarnational and participatory dynamic: a movement which brings embodied, time-bound specificities into an intimate relationship with the excessive, uncontainable, superabundance of divine being. This thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of work which is discovering deep resonances between drama and theology. It also makes a significant contribution to the study of Sayers’ writings. Whilst Sayers’ detective fiction and other prose, in particular her book The Mind of the Maker, has received attention from scholars interested in theology, the theological significance of her plays has been overlooked. The thesis examines in detail four of Sayers’ dramatic works. Chapters Two and Three each treat works written for broadcast on BBC radio: first, Sayers’ 1938 nativity play, He That Should Come; second, her series of twelve plays depicting the life of Christ, The Man Born to Be King, broadcast between 1941 and 1942. Chapters Four and Five discuss plays written for performance in ecclesial settings: The Just Vengeance, commissioned as part of a festival at Lichfield Cathedral in 1946, and The Zeal of Thy House, the Canterbury Cathedral Festival play for 1937.
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Willmer, David. "Theatricality, mediation, and public space : the legacy of Parsi theatre in South Asian cultural history /." Online version, 1999. http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/21701.
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曾慶慈 and Hing-chi Tsang. "A critical study of supernatural elements in Yuan drama." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1990. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31210028.
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Sniderman, Alisa. "The Modern Stage of Capitalism: The Drama of Markets and Money (1870-1930)." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467505.
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The Modern Stage of Capitalism tells the story of why and how modern drama captured the spirit of capitalism in all its contradictions. Although the bourgeois novel has long been considered the definitive genre of capital, at the end of the nineteenth century, Western theatre was in the perfect position to explore the ambiguous impact of capitalist culture. It was at the zenith of the economic hierarchy of the arts and at the nadir of the aesthetic hierarchy. Even with the serious drama of the day, modern theatre could not entirely purge itself of the tarnish of commerce. This enmeshment in commerce and the market economy generated a wealth of formal innovations and a wide range of responses to capitalist culture that went beyond moral outrage. Dramatists from Ibsen and Shaw to Brecht and O’Neill were neither apologists for, nor mere detractors of capitalism; they explored the bonds and clashes between religious values and secular economic virtues, drawing parallels between the institution of theatre and the brave new world of capitalist modernity. Besides dramatic texts, this interdisciplinary project relies on archival research of theatre productions, socio-economic theories that the playwrights responded to (Smith, Marx, Weber, Morris, Taylor), and critical theory that examines the relationship between economics and literary studies (Bourdieu, Jameson, Moretti). The present study takes modern theatre as a case study to show that products of culture engage with capitalism in a network of both promotional and antagonistic relations. The modern stage became a testing ground for the ideas of capitalist culture including the work ethic, competition, and the accumulation of capital.Comparative Literature
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D'Ermo-Tenaglia, Doria. "Calandro, un personaggio nella storia della critica, 1788-1980 : saggio di bibliografia critica." Thesis, McGill University, 1986. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=65467.
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O'Regan, Inge Brigitta. ""Zuwachs unsrer existenz" : the quest for Being in J.M.R. Lenz." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31078.
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Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751-1792), whose plays have been acclaimed as the prototype of the modern drama of Brecht and Durrenmatt, is a controversial figure who rose to prominence on the German literary scene in the early seventeen seventies.
Among Lenz's theoretical writings is the influential essay "Anmerkungen ubers Theater," in which he introduces his innovative dramatic theories and describes the independent protagonists he envisions for the German stage. In the same essay, he demands "Zuwachs unsrer Existenz" (a heightened awareness of existence) from contemporary drama.
However, in marked contrast to the "Anmerkungen," the protagonists of his two most prominent plays, Der Hofmeister (1774) and Die Soldaten (1776), are self-alienated, ontologically insecure individuals who seem victims of the socio-political realities of their times. Not surprisingly, critics are divided in their opinion as to what the contradictions in Lenz's oeuvre signify.
Lenz was a student of Immanuel Kant's between 1768 and 1770, a time when the latter was formulating ideas that would find their full expression years later in his critical philosophy. In 1770, Kant presented his inaugural address "de mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis" (On the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World) to the assembled faculty and students of KCnigsberg Academy, among them J.M.R. Lenz. It is in the inaugural dissertation that Kant introduces his thesis of the individual as an inhabitant of two "worlds," the noumenal and the phenomenal, a central concept in his first critique, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, which would be published in 1781.
This study examines Lenz's thoughts as they surface in his theoretical essays and his major plays and puts forward the thesis that it is Kant's division of the self into an intelligible and a sensible realm which prompts Lenz's call
for "Zuwachs unsrer Existenz." Lenz's quest is fuelled, furthermore, by his acute awareness of the ontological insecurity of the individual self, an awareness which seems to anticipate the thought of Kierkegaard.
The overriding purpose of this thesis is, through a reevaluation of Lenz's theoretical and dramatic works, to elucidate this eighteenth-century writer's quest for authentic being, a quest that he considered to be the individual's most urgent task.Arts, Faculty of
Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of
Graduate