To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: King Lear (Shakespeare, William).
Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'King Lear (Shakespeare, William)'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'King Lear (Shakespeare, William).'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Hays, Michael Louis. "Shakespearean tragedy as chivalric romance : rethinking Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello and King Lear /." Cambridge : D. S. Brewer, 2003. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy045/2003004936.html.
Full text
2
De, Waal Marguerite Florence. "Revelatory deceptions in selected plays by William Shakespeare." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/62673.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation is concerned with the paradox of revelatory deception a form of 'lying' which reveals truth instead of concealing it in four Shakespearean plays: Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Hamlet, and King Lear. Through close analysis, I show that revelatory deceptions in these plays are metatheatrical, and read them as responding to contemporary writers who attacked the theatre for being inherently deceitful. This reading leads to the identification of parallels in the description of theatre in antitheatrical texts and the descriptions of revelatory deceptions in the plays. I suggest that correlations in phrasing and imagery might undermine antitheatrical rhetoric: for example, the plays portray certain theatrical, revelatory deceptions as traps which free their victims instead of killing them. Such 'lies' are differentiated from actual deceits by their potentially relational characteristics: deceptions which reveal the truth require audiences to put aside their self-interest and certainty to consider alternative realities which might reflect, reconfigure, and expand their understanding of the world and of themselves. The resulting truths lead either to the creation or renewal of relationships, as in Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It, or offer glimpses at the possibility of renewal, which is ultimately denied, as in Hamlet and King Lear. In both cases the imperatives for truth and right action are underscored not obscured, as antitheatricalists would have argued through the audience's vicarious experience of either the gains or losses of characters within the plays.Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
English
MA
Unrestricted
3
Hendricks, Shellee. ""The curiosity of nations" : King Lear and the incest prohibition." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=30173.
Full textAbstract:
The incest prohibition, though ostensibly "universal," has inspired a wide range of explanations and definitions both within and between cultures. Intense debate sprung up around the incest taboo during the matrimonially tumultuous reign of Henry VIII, leading to the great interest in this theme, which flourished on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stages. Although Shakespeare contributed a number of works to the incest canon, King Lear does not treat the incest motif overtly such that many critics have ignored its crucial role in that play. A synthetic theoretical approach is useful in exploring the wide-reaching implications of father-daughter love in Lear, which challenges the parameters of the incest prohibition.King Lear's effort to obstruct the marriage of Cordelia in the first scene constitutes a violation of the incest prohibition according to Levi-Strauss's notion of exogamy. To this violation, Cordelia contributes her belief that marriage requires only partial withdrawal of love from her father. Lear's unfulfilled love for his daughter Cordelia, whom he figures into wife and mother roles, exhibits oedipal traits and seeks gratification in Goneril and Regan. Lear experiences their "unnatural" refusal of his desires as emasculating sexual rejection, which manifests as the disease and guilt of transgression. He understands virtuous love as fatally tainted by sexual desire; the theme of love-as-death gains momentum. The tempest emerges as an agent of justice and punishment. Lear and Cordelia's reunion reasserts the themes of adulterous love and love-as-death, foreshadowing their shared death. Their subsequent capture introduces an expanded notion of the father-daughter relationship, including the possibility of conjugal love, which is consummated in their marriage in death.
4
Gonzalez, Shelly S. "Anti-Romance: How William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” Informed John Keats’s “Lamia”." FIU Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1169.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze John Keats’s “Lamia” and his style of Anti-Romance as informed by William Shakespeare’s own experimentation with Romance and Anti-Romance in “King Lear.”
In order to fulfill the purpose of my thesis, I explore both the Romance and the Anti-Romance genres and develop a definition of the latter that is more particular to “King Lear” and “Lamia.” I also look at the source material for both “King Lear” and “Lamia” to see how Shakespeare and Keats were handling the originally Romantic material. Both Shakespeare and Keats altered the original material by subverting the traditional elements of Romance.
In conclusion, the thesis suggests that Shakespeare’s Anti-Romance, “King Lear,” and his general reworking of the Romance genre within that play informed Keats’s own experimentation with and deviation from the traditional Romance genre, particularly in “Lamia.”
5
Adamian, Stephen P. "Family values : filial piety and tragic conflict in Antigone and King Lear." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79816.
Full textAbstract:
Most people place their sincerest hopes for emotional fulfillment on a rewarding family life. The "loved ones" that constitute our nuclear and extended familial worlds are the primary beneficiaries of our affections and of the fruits of our labors. In return for the primacy we accord our family members, we expect their behavior to demonstrate their loyalty to the clan. However, at a certain point obligations to the family can conflict with the needs of the individual. In this thesis I examine how filial duties influence the plights of the tragic heroines in Sophocles's Antigone and Shakespeare's King Lear. Both Antigone and Cordelia organize their lives around the virtue of family honor, and yet the strength of these commitments is not sufficient to spare them from their respective, calamitous ends. Their unwavering dedication to the sanctity of family bonds leaves them susceptible, as individuals, to great harm.
6
Villaça-Bergeron, Maud. "Shakespeare et la transmission des classiques grecs : influences de la mythographie et de la tragédie attique dans Hamlet, Macbeth et King Lear de William Shakespeare." Caen, 2010. http://www.theses.fr/2010CAEN1587.
Full textAbstract:
La présente étude tente de montrer que Shakespeare a été influencé par la culture grecque dans Hamlet, Macbeth et King Lear. Au travers de correspondances textuelles et thématiques troublantes, l'auteur cherche à établir qu'il paraît manifeste que Shakespeare ait eu recours à la tragédie grecque dans la composition de ces trois pièces majeures. Néanmoins, comme l'atteste la présente recherche, il ne peut être établi avec certitude que ce dramaturge ait lu Eschyle, Sophocle ou Euripide en grec ou en traduction vernaculaire que ce soit en anglais, en français ou en italien, traductions qui étaient pourtant nombreuses du vivant de Shakespeare. Cette thèse se divise en trois parties principales lesquelles explorent les principaux champs pour lesquels une ressemblance est flagrante avec Shakespeare ce qui amène à penser qu'il aurait pu avoir recours à la tragédie grecque. La première partie explore les moyens par lesquels le dramaturge aurait pu avoir eu connaissance de ces textes (scolarisation, traductions). Dans cette optique, cette partie expose les apports de la Renaissance, notamment dans l'instruction et la transmission des lettres grecques. La deuxième partie rapporte, pour chaque pièce, les correspondances textuelles et thématiques remarquables avec des œuvres littéraires majeures de la Grèce antique, surtout les dramaturges et Homère. La troisième partie se consacre à l'étude de ces héroïnes exceptionnelles que l'on trouve dans ces trois tragédies. Sans établir de portrait psychologique, cette étude cherche à dégager trois fils directeurs qui relient l'héroïne shakespearienne à l'héroïne tragique grecque : la stature de ces femmes, la représentation de la noblesse et l'absence de discours amoureux, thématiques centrales de la tragédie grecqueThe main objective of this dissertation is to consider the possibility of a Greek influence, namely mythology and tragedy, on Shakespeare's masterpieces Hamlet, Macbethand KingLear. This study first draws an impartial account of the current knowledge concerning Shakespeare's supposed education and of the major role played by Byzantine scholarship in the rediscovery of Greek texts which led to a huge wave of translations into Latin first and then into the vernaculars. The second part tries to establish textual and thematic correlations between Shakespeare's works and some Attic plays together with the epics of Homer and several other ancient Greek authors by picking passages drawn from both sides and explaining the common point between them. Finally, the third part deals with the place Shakespeare gave his main heroines in these plays, a place which corresponds in some significant aspects to the Greek tragic heroine
7
Kari, Matthew A. "A Scenic Design for a Production of William Shakespeare's King Lear." The Ohio State University, 2000. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392815572.
Full text
8
Rafimomen, Afsaneh. "Nature et pouvoir dans les tragédies de Shakespeare, quel conflit ? : l'exemple de Hamlet, Othello, King Lear et Macbeth." Nice, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011NICE2012.
Full textAbstract:
Cette étude présente, dans une première partie, une réflexion sur l'idée de nature dans quatre tragédies de William Shakespeare dans la perspective d'un lien que nous établissons, dans une deuxième partie, avec l'idée fondamentale de pouvoir. L'analyse des personnages en tant qu'éléments centraux à cette tension entre les deux notions, le rappel de la façon dont Shakespeare les situe par rapport à l'une et à l'autre, nous amènent à envisager le passage de la dyade "nature/ pouvoir" à la triade "nature- homme - pouvoir" comme le ressort essentiel de la tragédie shakespearienne. Cette prise de conscience de la centralité du thème du pouvoir, qui s'articule sur la tension et non sur le parallélisme entre macrocosme et microcosme, nous a conduite à tenter de découvrir non pas comment mais pourquoi Shakespeare a semé tant d'allusions et de références à la nature dans les œuvres analysées. Nous sommes ainsi arrivée à la conclusion que le thème de la nature remplit la fonction de masque, de "décor", de "bruitage" à plusieurs autres messages et, par voie de conséquence historique, à postuler l'hypothèse de l'appartenance de Shakespeare à deux courants de pensée qui prévalaient déjà à l'époque élisabéthaine, le stéganographie et l'herméneutiqueThis study, which is centered on four tragedies by William Shakespeare, puts forward a reflection not only on the notion of nature in these plays - the object of the first part - but also on the deep-rooted problematic link which it entertains, we purport to prove, with the notion of power - the object of our second part. The analysis of the characters as central elements to this tension between the two notions, supported, as will be shown, by a reminder of the way Shakespeare situates their decisions and actions precisely in relation to nature and power, leads us to consider the passage from the nature/power dualism to the nature/man/power triad as the mainspring of Shakespearian tragedies. This realization of the central position of the theme of power which actually hinges on the tension, and not on the parallelism, between the macrocosm and the microcosm, induces us to try to find not how but why Shakespeare introduces so many allusions and references to nature. We thus come to the conclusion that nature as a theme has taken on the function of a mask, a setting, a kind of "background noise", almost acting as a cover of many other messages, so that we may eventually venture the hypothesis that Shakespeare may well belong to two trends of thought already prevailing in Elizabethan times: steganography and hermeneutics
9
Mesina, Da Costa Carla. "The destitute figure in Shakespeare's King Lear and Miller's Death of a Salesman." Tesis, Universidad de Chile, 2014. http://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/130554.
Full text
10
Brudevold, Siri M. "The Wisdom in Folly: An Examination of William Shakespeare's Fools in Twelfth Night and King Lear." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/681.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the complexities to be found in the characters of Lear's Fool from King Lear and Feste from Twelfth Night. It begins with an investigation of the history behind the taxonomy of fools that William Shakespeare created in his works. The rest of the thesis is devoted to examining the many facets of the two aforementioned fools, with the goal of discovering just how important and influential they are to their respective plots and to the world of literature. Finally, there is a brief coda that explores the other striking similarities that the two plays have in common.
11
Claret, Jean-Louis. "Le traitement de la révélation dans trois tragédies de Shakespeare : "Hamlet", "Le roi Lear", "Macbeth" : la clairvoyance sublime de l'égarement." Nancy 2, 1995. http://www.theses.fr/1995NAN21009.
Full textAbstract:
Les héros des grandes tragédies de Shakespeare s'égarent et grâce à cette dérive orchestrée par le dramaturge parviennent à transcender leur nature pour accéder à un savoir précieux. Ils quittent la pénombre ambiante et s'élèvent vers une connaissance lumineuse qui leur permet de reconsidérer la signification de l'expérience humaine. Hamlet s'enlise dans les sables mouvants de la conscience, Lear est terrassé par la folie et Macbeth se lance corps et âme dans le mal. Ces trois personnes fascinent du fait de la grandeur dont ils sont investis au terme de leur parcours et du mystère qui dramatique : Shakespeare ne présente pas des hommes mais des "êtres de mots" et tout ce qui leur arrive n'est que l'image d'une destinée. Le théâtre obéit à des lois qui lui sont propres et l'analyse du langage, de même que le rapport au spectateur sont au cœur de la démarche que le critique doit adopter. Le public assiste à la désintégration de personnages soudain grandis par la reconnaissance (anagnoris en grec) de la petitesse des hommes mais qui s'avèrent incapables de tirer parti de ce savoir chèrement acquis. Les spectateurs, inclus dans la représentation par un jeu de miroirs vertigineux, sont les seuls bénéficiaires de l'expérience représentée. Shakespeare s'est efforcé de débarrasser ses contemporains du carcan de l'espérance afin de privilégier une approche plus vraie et plus enrichissante de leur parcoursThe heroes of the great tragedies of Shakespeare lose their way and manage, thanks to this drift organized by the playwright, to transcend their nature and attain to a precious knowledge. They leave the darkness of their world and rise to a bright light which enables them to take a new look at the meaning of human experience. Hamlet sinks into the quicksands of his consciousness, Lear is overcome by madness and Macbeth commits himself body and soul to evil. These three characters fascinate owing to the greatness they are endowed with at the end of their course and to the mystery they are shrouded in. Their fates are approached in terms of dramatic writing technique: Shakespeare does not introduce us to men but to 'word creatures' and all that happens to them is nothing but the image of a destiny. The theatre obeys its own rules and the analysis of the words; along with the relation to the spectators are the be-all and end-all of the method the critic must use. The audience attends the disintegration of characters that suddenly grow in stature as they realize how meaningless man's life is. This recognition (anagnorisis in Greek) proves pointless in that the dramatis personae are unable to take advantage of that painful revelation. The public, included in the performance thanks to breathtaking mirroring effects, are the only people who can actually draw
12
Drew, John Michael. "Shakespeare and the Language of Doubt." View abstract, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3320755.
Full text
13
Guéron, Claire. "Retour et retournement : la poétique du déracinement dans "Richard II", "Le Roi Lear", "Coriolan", "Timon d'Athènes" et "La Tempête"." Paris 3, 2008. http://www.theses.fr/2008PA030120.
Full textAbstract:
Richard II, Le Roi Lear, Coriolan, Timon d'Athènes, et La Tempête sont des pièces qui mettent en scène des bannissements, parfois suivis de retours. La polyvalence de la scène élisabéthaine et la polysémie du mot "lieu" ("place" en anglais) à la Renaissance doublent ces parcours d'un discours. L'enjeu de ces discours est non seulement la place du banni au sein de la société, mais également son statut ontologique. En recoupant la thématique de l'errance avec le trope de l'arbre déraciné, on constate que le "déracinement" shakespearien, contrairement à celui des discours nationalistes du début du vingtième siècle, ne consiste pas tant en une rupture du lien aux origines qu'en un état de profonde altérité – par rapport aux autres où à soi-même. Cependant, on constate aussi que le terme de "déracinement" pose problème, car la métaphore de l'homme-arbre, très répandue, est sapée par un discours sous-jacent qui affirme l'irréductible spécificité de l'humainRichard II, King Lear, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens and The Tempest feature scenes of banishment, sometimes followed by the exile's return. The versatility of the Elizabethan stage and the polysemic nature of the word "place" in Renaissance English endow these changes of location with discursive meaning. The stakes of such discourse include not just the exile's place in society, but his or her ontological status as well. A close study of the overlapping tropes of homelessness and the uprooted tree suggests that Shakesperean "uprootedness", contrary to what early twentieth-century French ideologues, following Barrès and Maurras, spoke of as "déracinement", does not involve a denial of origins so much as a condition of fundamental "otherness", with respect to others and to one's former self. However, the very notion of human "uprootedness" is problematic, for the ubiquitous metaphor of the human tree is undermined by an underlying affirmation of the uniqueness of the human
14
Medina, Reales Yennadim. ""Pray you now, Forget and Forgive": Forgiveness, redemption and restoration in Shakespeare's King Lear and O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night." Tesis, Universidad de Chile, 2014. http://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/130550.
Full text
15
Toubiana, Éric. "Abord psychopathologique de l'héritage." Paris 7, 1987. http://www.theses.fr/1987PA070064.
Full textAbstract:
Cette recherche s'attache à aborder l'héritage en faisant appel aux textes de loi, à la littérature (en particulier avec Shakespeare : Jules Cesar et le roi Lear), a la métapsychologie psychanalytique, à une expérience clinique. Le caractère anecdotique des problématiques engendrées par l'héritage est volontairement laissé en suspens pour céder la place à certaines lignes de force qui régissent les successions. Identité et propriété, troubles de la constitution du narcissisme, meurtre-culpabilité-transmission, mécanisme d'identification, liens de filiation, phylogenèse et héritage culturel, travail du deuil - massacre du mort - retour du refoulé, emprise et séduction comme entrave à une transmission, sont autant de fils conducteurs qui ont servi à guider cette thèse.
16
Wagler, Madeleine S. "“`Mine honor is my life’: An Examination of William Shakespeare’s Portrayal of the Connection Between Life and Honor”." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1619094691716642.
Full text
17
GRANDI, ROBERTA. "Tragicommedia, Melodramma e Burlesque: Metamorfosi del King Lear in Inghilterra dalla Restaurazione all'Ottocento." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/511.
Full textAbstract:
Questa tesi si occupa di percorrere il percorso di evoluzione del King Lear attraverso due secoli e mezzo di adattamenti teatrali e riscritture. Prende in esame gli adattamenti di Nahum Tate, David Garrick, George Colman, John Philip Kemble, Edmund Kean e William Charles Macready. La tesi propone anche l’analisi del melodramma di W.T. Moncrieff nonché i burlesques di John Chalmers, Joseph Halford e C.J. Collins, e Frederick Marchant.This doctoral thesis focuses on the evolution of the story of King Lear through two centuries and a half of theatrical history. The research is concentrated on the adaptations proposed by Nahum Tate, David Garrick, George Colman, John Philip Kemble, Edmund Kean and William Charles Macready. The analysis also takes into considerations some rewritings such as the melodrama written by W.T. Moncrieff and the burlesques produced by John Chalmers, Joseph Halford and C.J. Collins, and Frederick Marchant.
18
GRANDI, ROBERTA. "Tragicommedia, Melodramma e Burlesque: Metamorfosi del King Lear in Inghilterra dalla Restaurazione all'Ottocento." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/511.
Full textAbstract:
Questa tesi si occupa di percorrere il percorso di evoluzione del King Lear attraverso due secoli e mezzo di adattamenti teatrali e riscritture. Prende in esame gli adattamenti di Nahum Tate, David Garrick, George Colman, John Philip Kemble, Edmund Kean e William Charles Macready. La tesi propone anche l’analisi del melodramma di W.T. Moncrieff nonché i burlesques di John Chalmers, Joseph Halford e C.J. Collins, e Frederick Marchant.This doctoral thesis focuses on the evolution of the story of King Lear through two centuries and a half of theatrical history. The research is concentrated on the adaptations proposed by Nahum Tate, David Garrick, George Colman, John Philip Kemble, Edmund Kean and William Charles Macready. The analysis also takes into considerations some rewritings such as the melodrama written by W.T. Moncrieff and the burlesques produced by John Chalmers, Joseph Halford and C.J. Collins, and Frederick Marchant.
19
Jesus, Leila Vieira de. "A study of fools : Lear's fool in Shakespeare's King Lear and Vladimir and Estragon in Beckett's Waiting for Godot." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/54076.
Full textAbstract:
O foco dessa dissertação é analisar o papel, as características, e a presença dos bobos ao longo da história, focando em sua constante aparição no teatro. Os personagens principais da minha análise serão o Bobo, na peça Rei Lear de William Shakespeare, e Vladimir e Estragon, na peça Esperando Godot de Samuel Beckett. Na análise desses personagens, discuto semelhanças entre os autores, que já foram notadas por críticos como Martin Esslin, Jan Kott, e Northrop Frye, e mostro como os personagens de Beckett são similares aos bobos de Shakespeare. Bobos, no teatro, frequentemente agem como mediadores entre o palco e a plateia, guiando os espectadores e falando verdades. O Bobo de Lear diz verdades criticando seu mestre e o lembrando das decisões erradas que ele tomou; os personagens em Esperando Godot dizem verdades sobre a falta de sentido de nossas vidas e, mais importante, nos mostram essa falta de sentido no decorrer da peça. Em relação à linguagem, o uso dela pelos bobos é diferente do uso dos outros personagens porque eles a manipulam para criar desentendimentos e jogos de palavras. No teatro de Shakespeare, a principal razão para esse uso peculiar da linguagem é que os bobos querem mostrar sua sagacidade; no teatro de Beckett, eles usam uma linguagem sem sentido para mostrar que ela está quebrada e que tentativas de comunicação são inúteis. Através das ações e diálogos dos bobos de Beckett em Esperando Godot, podemos ver que a vida é absurda e que vivemos em um mundo cheio de incertezas. Apesar de personagens bobos geralmente serem vistos como superficiais e insignificantes, especialmente nas peças de Shakespeare, eles são extremamente importantes no teatro e têm uma maneira única de interagir com os outros personagens e com o público.The focus of this thesis is to analyze the role, characteristics, and presence of fools throughout history, focusing on their recurrence in the theater. The characters I will focus on are Lear's Fool in William Shakespeare's King Lear, and Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, discussing similarities between the two authors, which have been mentioned by critics such as Martin Esslin, Jan Kott and Northrop Frye, and showing how Beckett's characters are similar to Shakespearean fools. Fools in the theater often act as mediators between the stage and the audience, guiding spectators and telling truths. Lear's Fool tells truths by criticizing his master and reminding him of the wrong decisions he has made; the characters in Waiting for Godot tell truths about the meaninglessness of life and, most importantly, show us this meaninglessness throughout the play. The use of language by fools is different from that of other characters because they manipulate it to create misunderstandings and word games. In Shakespeare's theater, the main reason for this peculiar use of language is that fools want to show their wit; in Beckett's theater, the characters use nonsensical language to show that language has broken down and that attempts at communication are pointless. Through the actions and dialogues of Beckett's fools in Waiting for Godot, we can see that life is absurd and that we live in a world full of uncertainties. In spite of the fact that fool characters are often seen as shallow and insignificant, especially in Shakespeare's theater, they are of extreme importance in the theater and have a unique manner of interacting with other characters and with the audience.
20
Flos, Marianne Elisabeth. "William Shakespeare: the fools and folly in "As you like it", the first parto of "Henriy teh fourth", "Twelfth night" and "King lear"." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 2013. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/106109.
Full textAbstract:
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 1980.Made available in DSpace on 2013-12-05T19:16:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 321694.pdf: 2388398 bytes, checksum: 911a7766ad686933537773d8bae0e7ab (MD5)
21
Claret, Jean-Louis. "Le traitement de la révélation dans trois tragédies de Shakespeare : "Hamlet, Le Roi Lear et Macbeth : la clairvoyance sublime de l'égarement /." Villeneuve-d'Ascq : Les presses universitaires du Septentrion, 1997. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37717827p.
Full text
22
Presley, Erin Melinda Denise. "Wrestling with Father Shakespeare contemporary revisions of King Lear and the tempest /." [Johnson City, Tenn. : East Tennessee State University], 2004. http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0319104-135906/unrestricted/PresleyE040204f.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2004.Title from electronic submission form. ETSU ETD database URN: etd-0319104-135906. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via Internet at the UMI web site.
23
Rosi, Vinícius Zorzal. "Rei Lear: da Tragédia de William Shakespeare à Adaptação de Nahum Tate." Universidade Federal de Viçosa, 2014. http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/4881.
Full textAbstract:
Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:44:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
texto completo.pdf: 531169 bytes, checksum: e0d729debd3fc44b346508e20fed716b (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2014-03-20Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
This work aims to analyze in a comparative way the tragedy King Lear, by William Shakespeare, and its adaptation The History of King Lear, by the Irish poet Nahum Tate. In order to make this comparative study practicable, it ́s necessary to understand conceptions of tragedy, since conceptions from the Ancient Greece to the Shakespearean tragedy, the social and historical contexts of the Elizabethan era (when the Shakespearean dramaturgy came to light and was developed) and the Restoration era (when Tate ́s adaptation was written) and theories about literary adaptation, having in mind that adaptations are based in a context and the tastes of the audience in a specific time. The theoreticians who guided our work are Gerard Genette (2006), Julie Sanders (2006), Linda Hutcheon (2006), Aristotle (1995), Friedrich Nietzsche (2007), Anatol Rosenfeld (1993), Albin Leski (2006), A.C. Bradley (1992), Frank Kermode (2006), Bárbara Heliodora (2001), Marjorie Garber (2004), Marlene Soares dos Santos (2008), James Black (1975), and others.
O presente trabalho faz um estudo comparativo entre a tragédia Rei Lear, de William Shakespeare, e sua adaptação intitulada The History of King Lear, do poeta irlandês Nahum Tate. Para viabilizar este estudo comparativo, faz-se necessário compreender concepções de tragédia, desde a Antiguidade Clássica até a tragédia concebida por Shakespeare, os contextos sócio-históricos das eras elisabetana (período em que a dramaturgia shakespeariana surgiu e desenvolveu-se) e da Restauração (período em que a adaptação de Tate foi escrita) e teorias de adaptação literária, tendo em vista que adaptações são escritas à luz de determinado contexto e dos gostos do público-leitor de seu tempo. Os teóricos norteadores deste trabalho são Gerard Genette (2006), Julie Sanders (2006), Linda Hutcheon (2006), Aristóteles (1995), Friedrich Nietzsche (2007), Anatol Rosenfeld (1993), Albin Leski (2006), A.C. Bradley (1992), Frank Kermode (2006), Bárbara Heliodora (2001), Marjorie Garber (2004), Marlene Soares dos Santos (2008), James Black (1975), entre outros.
24
Lombardic, Diana. "Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres": A Feminist Revision of "King Lear"." FIU Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1547.
Full textAbstract:
Jane Smiley retells the tale of “King Lear” through the perspective of one of the evil sisters, in her novel “A Thousand Acres”. While the literary canon places William Shakespeare and his plays at the top of the list, I disagree that the canon should denote what is considered “classic” and what would be disregarded. Jane Smiley's novel is not canonized, but why? Her feminist revision of “King Lear” answers why Goneril and Regan were so evil. I argue that “King Lear” (both the text and the play) does not provide the evidence of dysfunction that Smiley's novel exhibits. “A Thousand Acres” opens up questions about gender formation, issues that are misrepresented and occluded in Shakespeare's “King Lear”. By bringing the trauma of incest to the forefront of the novel, its reverse emotional structures allow the reader to obtain a new perspective to a complex four-century-old play.
25
Townsend, Emily. "Player King early modern theatricality and the playing of power in William Shakespeare's Henriad /." Diss., Connect to the thesis, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10066/635.
Full text
26
Christofides, R. M. "Shakespeare and equivocation : language and the doom in Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2008. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/55788/.
Full textAbstract:
Equivocation is a condition of language that runs riot in Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. Whether as ambiguity or dissimulation, equivocation propels the plots of these plays to their tragic finales. The Doom as depicted in pre-Reformation churches is invoked in the plays as a force that could end both equivocation and tragedy. However, Shakespeare withholds this divine intervention, allowing the tragedy to play out. Chapter One outlines the thesis, explains the methodological approach, and locates the thesis in relation to the major fields of Shakespeare studies. Chapter Two focuses on the equivocal position of father-and-not-father occupied by Claudius and the Ghost in Hamlet, and the memento mori imagery in the play that reminds the audience of the inevitability of death and Judgement. Chapter Three on Othello examines Iago's equivocal mode of address, a blend of equivocations and lies that aims to move Othello from a valued insider to a detested outsider in Venice. Chapter Four argues that linguistic and temporal equivocations are the condition of Macbeth, where the trace of the future invades the present and the trace of vice invades virtue. In both Othello and Macbeth, the protagonists, in their darkest moments, summon images of apocalyptic damnation. Chapter Five proposes that the language of King Lear deconstructs the opposition between Christianity and paganism, and interprets Cordelia as both Lear's poison and remedy. Furthermore, it analyses the moment when Lear enters the stage carrying Cordelia's dead body as an equivocal invocation of the Doom. The methodological approach to this thesis draws on Derrida's conception of language as differential and without access to any divine guarantees that could anchor meaning. The tragedies, then, can be understood in relation to language: they are denied the divine force that could fix, resolve, and stabilize them.
27
Hartwig, David W. "The place of Shakespeare : performing King Lear and The tempest in an endangered world." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2010. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3909/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis brings ecocriticism to Shakespearean performance through an examination of adapted performance worlds. Studying cinematic and theatrical productions of Shakespeare’s King Lear and The Tempest, it develops a strategy of ecopoetic analysis: a critical approach to the creation of worlds in the process of adapting a play for performance. This work developed out of my own environmentalism and experience in performing Shakespeare’s works. My goal is to develop a critical strategy for examining performance that utilises the tools of ecological criticism and furthers the fields of performance studies and ecocriticism. Ecocriticism modifies the scientific analyses performed by ecologists for looking at works of art. Beginning with the principal that everything is connected to everything else, ecocritics focus on the interactions between elements of a work, the interactions between the work and the world at large, and between the work and its audience. I examine the cultural context of a work, other landmark works with which it engages intertextually, and the reactions of original audience members, especially journalistic and academic reviewers, in order to ascertain how an individual production adapts a Shakespearean play to a new environment. I found in my analyses that Shakespeare’s works are particularly fertile ground for an ecopoetic analysis. Directors, in their efforts to keep his work relevant to a modern audience, frequently adapt and alter the worlds of Shakespeare’s plays in their productions. My ecopoetic approach to these productions reveals the ways in which the performances engage their audience, providing a better understanding of how to increase participatory spectatorship. I also found that this approach reveals underlying engagements between individual productions and the culture out of which they grew, and that the construction of performance environments is tied to cultural conceptions of the natural world. Finally, I discovered that Shakespeare’s works are an international language for performance, with adapters around the world experimenting with his plays in order to further the effectiveness of theatrical and cinematic production. As such, they are a logical place in which to formulate a new method of performance criticism, one which engages the world of the performance, the context of the production, and the audience that experiences the performance world. This thesis confronts numerous difficulties, including the fact that ecocriticism does not provide a critical apparatus as such, but is a politically-inspired way of viewing works. As such, I develop a more rigourous method of analysis, applying the tools of ecological science (interconnectedness, ecosystems, and adaptation), and the ethos of a modified phenomenology of performance criticism, to the worlds of performances. The crucial confrontation in my work is between nature and culture. I argue that the two are mutually constructing, and that performance occupies a place in which the two meet and interact and is thus the ideal ecosystem in which to investigate the interactions between culture and nature. Our world is endangered, the effects of global climate change and pollution are potentially catastrophic for us all. The issues that we face, the relationship between our human culture and our natural world, are dramatised in the works that I examine. The ecopoetic model of analysis that I develop can be applied to a greater variety of performance works, and this critical methodology is paramount for understanding the world and our place within it.
28
Chahed, Lakhoua Khaoula. "Sexe et pouvoir dans les tragédies de Shakespeare : Hamlet, Othello, King Lear et Macbeth." Paris 10, 1996. http://www.theses.fr/1996PA100144.
Full textAbstract:
Cette etude se propose, a travers une combinaison d'approches theoriques, de contexte historique et d'analyse textuelle de reconstruire les quatre tragedies de shakespeare : hamlet, othello, king lear et macbeth et de decouvrir l'inconscient d'une culture qui a reprime l'authentique de l'etre, en particulier de la femme, a un point ou cette derniere a essaye d'echapper a cette culture pour decouvrir son identite. Cette recherche combine l'etude sociale et l'histoire intellectuelle de la periode shakespearienne. Elle examine comment les relations entre les sexes a une epoque de transition influencerent les themes et les structures des pieces. Ces tragedies mettent l'accent surtout sur la difficulte d'exercer le pouvoir et l'autorite a une epoque de mutations sociale, politique et ideologique, qui, avec l'apparition de l'individualisme et du scepticisme devoile un monde au statut equivoque ou la femme est tantot ange tantot demon. Avec l'apparition du puritanisme et de l'humanisme, les personnages se trouvent entre deux courants de pensee caracteristiques de l'epoque et ne savent plus s'ils doivent obeir a des principes superieurs naturels et metaphysiques ou s'affirmer en tant qu'etres independants et libres de leur destin, d'ou un etat d'ambivalence qui a caracterise et l'homme de la renaissance et les personnages shakespeariens. Tout en etudiant l'homme, la femme et le pouvoir, nous avons demontre que les techniques utilisees par le barde ont ete revelatrices puisqu'elles ont joue en faveur du personnage masculin en lui conferant un pouvoir et une certaine ascendance. Malgre cela, les personnages feminins ont prouve que le pouvoir peut changer de camp et que les roles et les craintes peuvent etre inverses. Ces tragedies revelent une preoccupation recurrente des pouvoirs feminins qui menacent l'ordre etabli et produisent une confusion des valeursThe theories, the historical and cultural context and the textual analysis, helped us to reconstruct shakespeare's tragedies : hamlet, othello, king lear and macbeth. We examined the different relations between the sexes that shakespeare depicts and the links they have with politics and power, in order to find out to whom belongs the power. We stressed the ambivalent status of male but specially fermale characters, who seem to be submissive and obedient sometimes but powerful and decision-makers at others, showing thus that the difference between the sexes is not considered as a fixed fact but rather as a changing cultural world. The stereotypes of the obedient and submissive woman and of the strong and powerful man are replaced by a blending of the roles and powers. With the appearance of puritanism and humanism which believe in free will, women discover that they can be free to choose in a world where men still compare them to objects. In these tragedies, women refuse to be silent bearers of meaning. Though often excluded or silenced by dominant linguistic strategies, we tried to read woman's voice, and through a close study of the language and the metaphors used we discovered a male character, fearing a female power, often presented as a threat. Women become the dangerous and threatening "other", the temptresses who betray men with the lure of sexual desire. They are shown as the persons who fractured the social order
29
Zilleruelo, Erica Lee Wineke Donald. "Shakespeare by any other word? Shakespeare's King Lear and Macbeth reinvented in the films of Akira Kurosawa /." Diss., A link to full text of this thesis in SOAR, 2007. http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/handle/10057/1188.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English."May 2007." Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 30, 2007). Thesis adviser: Donald Wineke. Includes bibliographic references (leaves 35-37).
30
Wagner, Christina. "James and Shakespeare: Unification through Mapping." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1431114265.
Full text
31
Johnson, Toria Anne. "'Piteous overthrows' : pity and identity in early modern English literature." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4197.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis traces the use of pity in early modern English literature, highlighting in particular the ways in which the emotion prompted personal anxieties and threatened Burckhardtian notions of the self-contained, autonomous individual, even as it acted as a central, crucial component of personal identity. The first chapter considers pity in medieval drama, and ultimately argues that the institutional changes that took place during the Reformation ushered in a new era, in which people felt themselves to be subjected to interpersonal emotions – pity especially – in new, overwhelming, and difficult ways. The remaining three chapters examine how pity complicates questions of personal identity in Renaissance literature. Chapter Two discusses the masculine bid for pity in courtly lyric poetry, including Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella and Barnabe Barnes's Parthenophil and Parthenophe, and considers the undercurrents of vulnerability and violation that emerge in the wake of unanswered emotional appeals. This chapter also examines these themes in Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Sidney's Arcadia. Chapter Three also picks up the element of violation, extending it to the pitiable presentation of sexual aggression in Lucrece narratives. Chapter Four explores the recognition of suffering and vulnerability across species boundaries, highlighting the use of pity to define humanity against the rest of the animal kingdom, and focusing in particular on how these questions are handled by Shakespeare in The Tempest and Ben Jonson, in Bartholomew Fair. This work represents the first extended study of pity in early modern English literature, and suggests that the emotion had a constitutive role in personal subjectivity, in addition to structuring various forms of social relation. Ultimately, the thesis contends that the early modern English interest in pity indicates a central worry about vulnerability, but also, crucially, a belief in the necessity of recognising shared, human weakness.
32
Kass, Kersti L. "Regarding Henry : performing kingship in Henry V." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79954.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis seeks to examine not any single theory of kingship in Shakespeare's 'Henriad', but the evolving methods of its representation from Richard II's assumed embodiment of monarchic authority to Henry V's unapologetic performance of the kingly role. As well, it explores how a shared awareness of authority's performed nature forces the spectator into knowing her own creative authority and in doing so, heightens not only the tension between gazer and gazed-upon, but also lays bare the spectator's need to watch a desired object and the performing object's overarching wish to be watched. The paper's critical foundation ranges from phenomenological approaches to the theatre and gender performance to studies on the spectacle of kingship.
33
Funk, Sophia G. I. "Simply Genre Films: Extracting “King Lear” from “House of Strangers” and “Broken Lance"." FIU Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1632.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate and refute Yvonne Griggs’ claims that the films “House of Strangers” (1949) and “Broken Lance” (1954) are as Griggs deems “genre-based adaptations” of William Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” I argue that the films, although they have some essential elements of “King Lear,” lack intentionality and reception, pivotal components in determining viability as a Shakespearean film adaptation. Using Griggs’ book as my critical background, I will show that these films are better classified under their respective genre categories, Western and film noir, not as “King Lear” genre adaptations. I will also suggest criteria for determining the level of canonicity of a “King Lear” film adaptation. Popularity of films does not determine validity, and a film does not need purported Shakespearean provenance to validate its ratings. Some films, like these, merely reference or pay homage to Shakespeare through use of essential elements of “King Lear”; here, I deem such affinities to be more unintentional than intentional.
34
Lee, Chelsea Megan. "The Walking Dead: Rhetorical Manipulations of Death in Early Modern Performance." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2020. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8604.
Full textAbstract:
Death's presence on the Renaissance stage, and in Renaissance life, has been noticed and remarked upon by scholars in the past. The role of death in the early modern period was in flux due to major changes in religious and social life. During this time, the relationship between the living and dead was put into question, and the way the culture handled preparing for death began to change in significant, if subtle, ways. Renaissance drama became a stage for exploring and confronting the presence of death in life. King Lear and Hamlet remain two of Shakespeare's most enduring meditations on death, though the interpretations of the deaths and the meaning gleaned from the texts varies. My project involves presenting an alternative reading of the deaths that can only be found when one reads the performances in relation to primary documents of the time that deal with similar preparations for death. By reading Hamlet in relation to execution rhetoric and King Lear in relation to will-writing in the early modern period, we can begin to understand the value of their deaths in accordance with the societies they represent. Ultimately, Hamlet succeeds in satisfying the demands of an execution and creates a death that serves both himself and his community. On the other hand, Lear fails to adequately prepare for death and compose a considerate will, which leaves his kingdom in ruins. Both are monarchs whose bodies represent the states they leave behind, but only one manages to satisfy a monumentality that maintains the stability of his kingdom.
35
Silva, Josenildo Ferreira TeÃfilo da. "O humano e sua voz: um diÃlogo comparativo entre Mrs. Dalloway de Virginia Woolf e Rei Lear de William Shakespeare." Universidade Federal do CearÃ, 2017. http://www.teses.ufc.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=19660.
Full textAbstract:
A presente dissertaÃÃo tem como objetivo discutir de que forma a leitura da obra do poeta e dramaturgo inglÃs, William Shakespeare (1564 â 1616), influenciou o projeto literÃrio desenvolvido pela escritora Virginia Woolf (1882 â 1941), buscando, principalmente, estabelecer um diÃlogo comparativo entre o romance Mrs. Dalloway, publicado em 1925, e a tragÃdia Rei Lear, escrita por Shakespeare em 1605. Acreditamos que atravÃs de um processo crÃtico expresso por meio da leitura que Virginia Woolf faz do texto shakespeariano, a voz do bardo inglÃs vai se dissolvendo dentro da escritura da autora e por ela vai sendo assimilada e transformada, ao ponto de se tornar uma voz Ãnica e distinta, a saber, a voz woolfiana. Para tanto, nos pautamos em algumas categorias fundamentais para o processo de anÃlise, como o conceito de tradiÃÃo, cunhado pelo crÃtico e tambÃm poeta T. S. Eliot, em seu texto âTradiÃÃo e talento individualâ (1968); o de intertextualidade, apresentado pela professora Julia Kristeva (1974), com base nas teorias da polifonia e do dialogismo desenvolvidas por Mikhail Bakhtin (2002), alÃm dos conceitos de influÃncia, (des)leitura e de humano, discutidos pelo crÃtico norte-americano Harold Bloom, em seus livros A angÃstia de influÃncia: uma teoria da poesia (1991) e Shakespeare: a invenÃÃo do humano (2000). Com isso em mente, traÃamos nosso percurso comparativo a partir da anÃlise dos dois personagens centrais do romance de Virginia Woolf, Clarissa Dalloway e Septimus Warren Smith, dialogando-os diretamente com as figuras de Lear e de seu bobo da corte. Assim, mostramos de que forma a voz shakespeariana desses personagens vÃo sendo evocadas e transformadas pelos dois protagonistas do romance, constituindo, desse modo, um processo de (des)leitura da peÃa em questÃo. à nesse sentido, portanto, que concluÃmos que a voz shakespeariana de Virginia Woolf à uma voz que, ao mesmo tempo, possui uma consciÃncia das novas necessidades exigidas por seu tempo presente, mas que tambÃm traz consigo o peso de sÃculos de tradiÃÃo, expressos principalmente pelo legado deixado por Shakespeare para a literatura inglesa e universal.The present dissertation aims at discussing how the reading of the work of the poet and also dramatist William Shakespeare (1564 â 1616) had influenced the literary project developed by the writer Virginia Woolf (1882 â 1941), in order to establish a comparative dialogue between the novel Mrs. Dalloway, published in 1925, and the tragedy King Lear, written by Shakespeare in 1605. We believe that by means of a critical process expressed in the reading Virginia Woolf did about the shakespearean text, the voice of the English bard dissolves into the poetic writing of the author and is assimilated and transformed by it, till the moment it becomes a single and distinct voice, namely, the woolfian voice. To support our analysis, we are based on some fundamental categories such as the concept of tradition discussed by the critic and also poet T. S. Eliot in his essay âTradition and individual talentâ (1968); of intertextuality presented by the professor Julia Kristeva (1974) based on the notions of polyphony and dialogism developed by Mikhail Bakhtin (2002); and the concepts of influence, (mis)reading and of human discussed by the American critic Harold Bloom in his books The anxiety of influence: a theory of poetry (1991) and Shakespeare: the invention of human (2000). With this in mind, we did our comparative analysis focusing on the two protagonists of Virginia Woolfâs novel, Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith, and their dialogue with the characters king Lear and his clown. This way, we intend to show how the shakespearean voice of these two characters are evoked and then transformed by the protagonists of the novel, constituting, therefore, a process of (mis)reading of the play studied. In this sense, we conclude that the shakespearean voice of Virginia Woolf is a voice that, at the same time, is conscious of the new necessities required by her present time and also of the importance of centuries of tradition expressed, mainly, by the legacy left by Shakespeare to English and universal literature.
36
Silva, Josenildo Ferreira Teófilo da. "O humano e sua voz: um diálogo comparativo entre Mrs. Dalloway de Virginia Woolf e Rei Lear de William Shakespeare." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFC, 2017. http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/24239.
Full textAbstract:
SILVA, Josenildo Ferreira Teófilo da. O humano e sua voz: um diálogo comparativo entre Mrs. Dalloway de Virginia Woolf e Rei Lear de William Shakespeare. 2017. 164f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Letras, Fortaleza (CE), 2017.Submitted by Gustavo Daher (gdaherufc@hotmail.com) on 2017-07-14T14:03:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_jftsilva.pdf: 3983596 bytes, checksum: 729280155c60a0695ccd2943f4b0d967 (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-07-25T13:20:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_jftsilva.pdf: 3983596 bytes, checksum: 729280155c60a0695ccd2943f4b0d967 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-25T13:20:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_jftsilva.pdf: 3983596 bytes, checksum: 729280155c60a0695ccd2943f4b0d967 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017
The present dissertation aims at discussing how the reading of the work of the poet and also dramatist William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) had influenced the literary project developed by the writer Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941), in order to establish a comparative dialogue between the novel Mrs. Dalloway, published in 1925, and the tragedy King Lear, written by Shakespeare in 1605. We believe that by means of a critical process expressed in the reading Virginia Woolf did about the shakespearean text, the voice of the English bard dissolves into the poetic writing of the author and is assimilated and transformed by it, till the moment it becomes a single and distinct voice, namely, the woolfian voice. To support our analysis, we are based on some fundamental categories such as the concept of tradition discussed by the critic and also poet T. S. Eliot in his essay “Tradition and individual talent” (1968); of intertextuality presented by the professor Julia Kristeva (1974) based on the notions of polyphony and dialogism developed by Mikhail Bakhtin (2002); and the concepts of influence, (mis)reading and of human discussed by the American critic Harold Bloom in his books The anxiety of influence: a theory of poetry (1991) and Shakespeare: the invention of human (2000). With this in mind, we did our comparative analysis focusing on the two protagonists of Virginia Woolf’s novel, Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith, and their dialogue with the characters king Lear and his clown. This way, we intend to show how the shakespearean voice of these two characters are evoked and then transformed by the protagonists of the novel, constituting, therefore, a process of (mis)reading of the play studied. In this sense, we conclude that the shakespearean voice of Virginia Woolf is a voice that, at the same time, is conscious of the new necessities required by her present time and also of the importance of centuries of tradition expressed, mainly, by the legacy left by Shakespeare to English and universal literature.
A presente dissertação tem como objetivo discutir de que forma a leitura da obra do poeta e dramaturgo inglês, William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), influenciou o projeto literário desenvolvido pela escritora Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941), buscando, principalmente, estabelecer um diálogo comparativo entre o romance Mrs. Dalloway, publicado em 1925, e a tragédia Rei Lear, escrita por Shakespeare em 1605. Acreditamos que através de um processo crítico expresso por meio da leitura que Virginia Woolf faz do texto shakespeariano, a voz do bardo inglês vai se dissolvendo dentro da escritura da autora e por ela vai sendo assimilada e transformada, ao ponto de se tornar uma voz única e distinta, a saber, a voz woolfiana. Para tanto, nos pautamos em algumas categorias fundamentais para o processo de análise, como o conceito de tradição, cunhado pelo crítico e também poeta T. S. Eliot, em seu texto “Tradição e talento individual” (1968); o de intertextualidade, apresentado pela professora Julia Kristeva (1974), com base nas teorias da polifonia e do dialogismo desenvolvidas por Mikhail Bakhtin (2002), além dos conceitos de influência, (des)leitura e de humano, discutidos pelo crítico norte-americano Harold Bloom, em seus livros A angústia de influência: uma teoria da poesia (1991) e Shakespeare: a invenção do humano (2000). Com isso em mente, traçamos nosso percurso comparativo a partir da análise dos dois personagens centrais do romance de Virginia Woolf, Clarissa Dalloway e Septimus Warren Smith, dialogando-os diretamente com as figuras de Lear e de seu bobo da corte. Assim, mostramos de que forma a voz shakespeariana desses personagens vão sendo evocadas e transformadas pelos dois protagonistas do romance, constituindo, desse modo, um processo de (des)leitura da peça em questão. É nesse sentido, portanto, que concluímos que a voz shakespeariana de Virginia Woolf é uma voz que, ao mesmo tempo, possui uma consciência das novas necessidades exigidas por seu tempo presente, mas que também traz consigo o peso de séculos de tradição, expressos principalmente pelo legado deixado por Shakespeare para a literatura inglesa e universal.
37
CANTU', VERA. "Hazlitt critico di Shakespeare." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/512.
Full textAbstract:
La tesi investiga la critica shakespeariana di Hazlitt, concentrandosi sulle analisi alle quattro maggiori tragedie del bardo, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet e King Lear. Uno dei i principali e più importanti obiettivi della tesi è quello di dimostrare come la critica shakespeariana di Hazlitt si discosti da quello che è solitamente conosciuto come “character criticism”, mettendo in luce l’interesse del critico romantico non soltanto per i personaggi, ma anche per la trama e la struttura generale dei drammi, e per le interpretazioni teatrali dei drammi stessi. Il capitolo uno riunisce le recensioni, i saggi, le lezioni e le pubblicazioni che costituiscono il vasto apparato critico shakespeariano di Hazlitt, fornendo un’interessante ed ampia panoramica delle principali fonti della sua critica shakespeariana. I capitoli due e tre presentando un’analisi puntuale delle letture hazlittiane delle quattro grandi tragedie di shakespeare, rispettivamente di Macbeth e Othello, Hamlet e King Lear. Vengono evidenziati gli elementi che permettono di inserire Hazlitt fra i maggiori esponenti del Romanticismo critico inglese e di proporlo come acuto precursore di argomentazioni novecentesche su Shakespeare.The dissertation investigates Hazlitt’s Shakespearean criticism, focusing mainly on his analysis of Shakespeare’s major tragedies, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear. One of the main and most important objectives of the dissertation is that of demonstrating that Hazlitt’s Shakespearean criticism differs from what is usually known as “character criticism”, underlining the critic’s interest not only for the characters, but also for the plot and the general structure of the plays, and for the theatrical interpretations of the plays themselves. Chapter one collects the reviews, the essays, the lectures and the many publications that constitute Hazlitt’s vast Shakespearean criticism. It provides an interesting and wide overview of the main sources of Hazlitt’s Shakespearean criticism. Chapters two and three present an accurate analysis of Hazlitt’s readings of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, respectively Macbeth and Othello, Hamlet and King Lear. These chapters bring to light the elements that allow Hazlitt to be included among the major English Romantic critics and that establish him as acute forerunner of twentieth-century Shakespearean theses.
38
CANTU', VERA. "Hazlitt critico di Shakespeare." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/512.
Full textAbstract:
La tesi investiga la critica shakespeariana di Hazlitt, concentrandosi sulle analisi alle quattro maggiori tragedie del bardo, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet e King Lear. Uno dei i principali e più importanti obiettivi della tesi è quello di dimostrare come la critica shakespeariana di Hazlitt si discosti da quello che è solitamente conosciuto come “character criticism”, mettendo in luce l’interesse del critico romantico non soltanto per i personaggi, ma anche per la trama e la struttura generale dei drammi, e per le interpretazioni teatrali dei drammi stessi. Il capitolo uno riunisce le recensioni, i saggi, le lezioni e le pubblicazioni che costituiscono il vasto apparato critico shakespeariano di Hazlitt, fornendo un’interessante ed ampia panoramica delle principali fonti della sua critica shakespeariana. I capitoli due e tre presentando un’analisi puntuale delle letture hazlittiane delle quattro grandi tragedie di shakespeare, rispettivamente di Macbeth e Othello, Hamlet e King Lear. Vengono evidenziati gli elementi che permettono di inserire Hazlitt fra i maggiori esponenti del Romanticismo critico inglese e di proporlo come acuto precursore di argomentazioni novecentesche su Shakespeare.The dissertation investigates Hazlitt’s Shakespearean criticism, focusing mainly on his analysis of Shakespeare’s major tragedies, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear. One of the main and most important objectives of the dissertation is that of demonstrating that Hazlitt’s Shakespearean criticism differs from what is usually known as “character criticism”, underlining the critic’s interest not only for the characters, but also for the plot and the general structure of the plays, and for the theatrical interpretations of the plays themselves. Chapter one collects the reviews, the essays, the lectures and the many publications that constitute Hazlitt’s vast Shakespearean criticism. It provides an interesting and wide overview of the main sources of Hazlitt’s Shakespearean criticism. Chapters two and three present an accurate analysis of Hazlitt’s readings of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, respectively Macbeth and Othello, Hamlet and King Lear. These chapters bring to light the elements that allow Hazlitt to be included among the major English Romantic critics and that establish him as acute forerunner of twentieth-century Shakespearean theses.
39
Keener, Andrew S. "The Paternal Dilemma: Fathers, Sons and Inheritance in Shakespearean Drama." Thesis, Boston College, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1210.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis advisor: Andrew SoferIn this thesis, it is my task to explore Shakespeare’s social analysis concerning the patriarchal structure of the family and the economic implications of this system. Four plays in particular, King Lear, Henry IV, As You Like It, and The Tempest resonate with these thematic elements. At the heart of these plays is the issue I call the paternal dilemma; the father or patriarch is a mere human, cannot live forever, and therefore needs to rely on an inheritance scheme to ensure the continuation of his line. This problem sees the institution of inheritance (namely, primogeniture) as a solution or antidote to mortality. In an investigation of these issues, I place myself in an already rich field of secondary criticism, examining how genre and family structure combine in what is ultimately a conservative understanding of the Elizabethan family
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: English Honors Program
Discipline: English
40
Ginder, Brittany. "Interpreting Invisibility: In Defense of Regan." VCU Scholars Compass, 2014. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3431.
Full textAbstract:
Most scholarship regarding Shakespeare’s King Lear rests on the analysis of Lear and Cordelia, with the odd reference to the eldest daughter, Goneril, and brief homages to the Gloucester subplot. Lear’s middle daughter, Regan, is rarely mentioned at all, unless it is in conjunction with one of her more scholastically popular sisters. Within these marginalized moments of notice, Regan is routinely simplified as being just another sinful sister, fitting nicely into the accepted binaries of good and evil outlined within the play. Despite the fact that most binaries, like characters, are flawed, Regan has been given little to no chance to be absolved of her supposed offenses. By looking at Regan through the lenses of a theatrical character study and also as a subject of iconography within the realms of classical art, film, graphic novels, and the stage, I aim to prove that Regan, despite her consistent relegation to the shadows, is a three-dimensional character who has simply been dealt a difficult hand by her creator.
41
Rutter, Erin. ""And So He Plays His Part:" Theatrical Prejudice and Role-Playing in As You Like It and King Lear." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0001313.
Full text
42
Blackwelder, Kevin. "MY, CLAUDIUS: A CASE AGAINST THE KING AS VILLAIN." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2010. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2159.
Full textAbstract:
The role of Claudius in Shakespeare s The Tragedy of Hamlet has traditionally been affixed with the label of villain, coupled with a presumption of malice. This prejudice has plagued the role, relegating it to shallow melodrama throughout the majority of the play s 440 odd-year history. Although it has now become more commonplace to see him portrayed as a capable, intelligent, even initially likable king, this has only been the case for the past 50 years or so, and even so the label of villain and the assumption of malice persist and prevail even in contemporary practice. While the author is reluctant to insist on the benevolence of the King as imperative, they do contend that Claudius should not be portrayed as a villain. Doing so undermines the primary conflict - that of Hamlet vs. Claudius - cripples the possibilities for exploration of the King as a role, hinders the potential for Hamlet s journey, and absolves the viewer of active engagement by playing directly into expectations. Within this thesis, consideration of historical analysis and editorial tradition are utilized in order to demonstrate a progressively encompassing disregard that has led to the role s neglect. An account of the 2006 University of Central Florida Conservatory Theatre production is used to validate the necessity of avoiding a villainous portrayal of the King. A brief description of the author s ideal Claudius explores the realm of possibility opened by such non-villainous portrayal, and potential for the role s complexity is examined through a thorough voice/text analysis and brief discussion of Jaques Lecoq s movement equilibrium theory via appendices.M.F.A.
Department of Theatre
Arts and Humanities
Theatre MFA
43
Bayer, Mark 1973. "Changing of the guards : theories of sovereignty in Shakespeare's Richard II." Thesis, McGill University, 1997. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=27927.
Full textAbstract:
Shakespeare's history plays are not merely benign representations of various historical figures and events but the site of political, cultural, and ideological contestation at the time of their performance. Richard II documents two divergent theoretical approaches to sovereignty which are more applicable to the political climate in Shakespeare's time than Richard's. In this essay, I read this play through the lens of various political tracts and historical tendencies dominant in late Elizabethan England. Though such an analysis might best be understood as historical materialist in orientation, I offer a contextual analysis of various modes of early modern political thought drawing variously upon theoretical precepts associated with new historicism as well as the 'ideas in context' school associated with Quentin Skinner, among others.Such an analysis reveals a shift in the mode of theoretical discourse. Richard's divine-right/monarchical approach to sovereignty based in an overarching ecclesiastical power base gives way to Bolingbroke's pragmatic and consensus driven politics. This shift mirrors the movement in late 16$ rm sp{th}$ and early 17$ rm sp{th}$ century England from traditional religious arguments offered by Richard Hooker, John Whitgift, and residually by James I to a more secular political discourse inaugurated by Machiavelli and his English adherents and symptomatic of the reign of Elizabeth herself. Roughly speaking this modulation follows the pattern of paradigm shifts in the physical sciences exposed by Thomas Kuhn's influential Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). The emergent theory, while marking a rapid and overwhelming reorientation of the terms and initial presuppositions of political discourse, draws in many crucial respects on the accrued tenets of the outgoing paradigm. The play therefore acts as a retroactive representation of a political reformation which occurred much later than the events depicted in the play.
44
Mittelbach, Jens. "Die Kunst des Widerspruchs." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2011. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-77251.
Full textAbstract:
Mehrdeutigkeit ist ein grundsätzliches Merkmal literarischer Texte. In der Literaturwissenschaft wird dieses Charakteristikum allerdings häufig undifferenziert als ‚Komplexität‘, ‚Ambivalenz‘ oder ‚Ambiguität‘ bezeichnet. Auch in der Shakespeare-Forschung, besonders aber bei kontrovers diskutierten Texten wie Henry V und Julius Caesar, tauchen diese Bezeichnungen schlagwortartig immer wieder auf. Oft jedoch stellen sie Verlegenheitsformulierungen dar, die mehr verdecken als sie erklären.
Die vorliegende Studie widmet sich dem Phänomen textueller Ambiguität und betrachtet sie – entgegen verallgemeinernden Auffassungen – als ein vom Autor bewußt eingesetztes und damit funktionales gestalterisches Mittel, das sowohl mikrostrukturell als auch auf der größeren Textebene angesiedelt sein kann. Die Untersuchung stellt in einem einleitenden Teil eine Theorie literarischer Ambiguität auf, wobei der Begriff von anderen gebräuchlichen Termini abgegrenzt wird. Literarische Ambiguität wird als eine dem Text oder Textteilen eingeschriebene, scheinbare Widersprüchlichkeit in der Aussage definiert, deren letztliches Ziel es ist, den Rezipienten aktiv an einer Sinnfindung zu beteiligen. Im textanalytischen Teil der Studie wird die Praktikabilität dieses Ambiguitätsbegriffs am Beispiel der zwei genannten Shakespeare-Dramen überprüft. Ambiguität wird als ein strukturelles Prinzip herausgestellt, das wesentlich zur ästhetischen Wirkung der untersuchten Texte beiträgt.
45
Martin, Brenda W. "Rhetorical Figures and Their Uses in I Henry IV." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1991. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500986/.
Full textAbstract:
This study is concerned with the artistic use of classical rhetorical figures in Shakespeare's I Henry IV.After the Introduction, Chapter II examines the history of rhetoric, focusing on the use of the rhetorical figures in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Medieval Europe. Chapter III investigates rhetorical principles and uses of the rhetorical figures during the English Renaissance and examines the probable influence of rhetoric and the figures on William Shakespeare. Chapter IV discusses themes, characterization, structure, and language in I Henry IV and presents the contribution of the rhetorical figures to the drama's action and characterization. Chapter V considers the contribution of the figures to the major themes of I Henry IV and concludes that the figures, when used with other artistic elements, enhance meaning.
46
Mittelbach, Jens. "Die Kunst des Widerspruchs: Ambiguität als Darstellungsprinzip in Shakespeares Henry V und Julius Caesar." WVT, Wiss. Verl, 2003. https://slub.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A1615.
Full textAbstract:
Mehrdeutigkeit ist ein grundsätzliches Merkmal literarischer Texte. In der Literaturwissenschaft wird dieses Charakteristikum allerdings häufig undifferenziert als ‚Komplexität‘, ‚Ambivalenz‘ oder ‚Ambiguität‘ bezeichnet. Auch in der Shakespeare-Forschung, besonders aber bei kontrovers diskutierten Texten wie Henry V und Julius Caesar, tauchen diese Bezeichnungen schlagwortartig immer wieder auf. Oft jedoch stellen sie Verlegenheitsformulierungen dar, die mehr verdecken als sie erklären.
Die vorliegende Studie widmet sich dem Phänomen textueller Ambiguität und betrachtet sie – entgegen verallgemeinernden Auffassungen – als ein vom Autor bewußt eingesetztes und damit funktionales gestalterisches Mittel, das sowohl mikrostrukturell als auch auf der größeren Textebene angesiedelt sein kann. Die Untersuchung stellt in einem einleitenden Teil eine Theorie literarischer Ambiguität auf, wobei der Begriff von anderen gebräuchlichen Termini abgegrenzt wird. Literarische Ambiguität wird als eine dem Text oder Textteilen eingeschriebene, scheinbare Widersprüchlichkeit in der Aussage definiert, deren letztliches Ziel es ist, den Rezipienten aktiv an einer Sinnfindung zu beteiligen. Im textanalytischen Teil der Studie wird die Praktikabilität dieses Ambiguitätsbegriffs am Beispiel der zwei genannten Shakespeare-Dramen überprüft. Ambiguität wird als ein strukturelles Prinzip herausgestellt, das wesentlich zur ästhetischen Wirkung der untersuchten Texte beiträgt.
47
Silveira, José Renato Ferraz da. "William Shakespeare e a teoria dos Dois Corpos do Rei: a tragédia de Ricardo II." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2009. http://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/3000.
Full textAbstract:
Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:23:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
Jose Renato Ferraz da Silveira.pdf: 1652261 bytes, checksum: 1f09a3145db00592751c3a62891ac56e (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2009-11-03Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
The tragedy of the politics is the certainty of the unexpected, the constant replacement of human energies, the effort to avoid the inevitable, the search for order and harmony, in face of the imbalance and chaos. By means of theoretical research, this study comes to the understanding about the shattering and devastating meaning of politics as tragedy, in that it´s searched, by the Hermeneutic, focus, relate, analyze William Shakespeare´s work historical time, the English king Ricardo II government, beyond the controversial theory of the kings divine right reinforced, discussed and extended by the English jurists during Queen Elizabeth govern (1558-1603). It was selected, as analysis cuttings, the conflicts, paradoxes, tensions, search for legality and legitimacy, the imminent human beings involvement in a tragic dimension in which life and death, ascent and decadence, glory and failure are inevitable and constituents phases of the political power eternal dispute . It´s believed that Shakespeare has achieved reveal the Two Bodies of the king tragedy in that piece called Ricardo II. By that reason, that medieval legal doctrine of the Shakespeare literary output cannot be separated and, if that theory has been losing its meaning in time, it still has human and concrete meaning nowadays; this, in great extent, dues to him. It is considered, in this study, that Shakespeare dominated the jargon of almost all the human position, besides the contact of this with the constitutional and legal speech of his time. Besides that, the poet conception about the king twin nature does not depend on constitutional protection only, since the piece conceives, a lot naturally, the king twin nature. In that sense, it is expected that the present study contributes for the understanding search of the Two Bodies of the king theory, that it´s constituted in a ramification of the Christian theological thought and, consequently, that piece remains like a Christian political theology landmark
A tragédia da política é a certeza do inesperado, a constante reposição de energias humanas, o esforço para evitar o inevitável, a busca da ordem e da harmonia em face do desequilíbrio e do caos. Por meio de pesquisa teórica, este estudo volta-se para o entendimento acerca do impactante e devastador significado de política como tragédia, em que buscamos, com base na Hermenêutica, enfocar, relacionar, analisar o tempo histórico da obra de William Shakespeare, o governo do rei inglês Ricardo II, além da controversa teoria do direito divino dos reis reforçada, discutida e ampliada pelos juristas ingleses durante o governo da rainha Elisabeth (1558-1603). Foram selecionados como recortes para análise os conflitos, paradoxos, tensões, busca de legalidade e legitimidade, os iminentes envolvimentos dos seres humanos, numa dimensão trágica, em que vida e morte, ascensão e decadência, glória e fracasso são etapas inevitáveis e constitutivas da eterna disputa pelo poder político. Acreditamos que Shakespeare tenha alcançado revelar a tragédia dos Dois Corpos do rei nessa peça Ricardo II. Por essa razão, não se pode separar essa doutrina jurídica medieval da produção literária de Shakespeare e, se essa teoria esvaneceu no tempo, ainda possui, hoje, significado concreto e humano; isso, em grande parte, deve-se a ele. Consideramos, neste trabalho, que Shakespeare dominava o jargão de quase todo o ofício humano, além do contato deste com a fala constitucional e jurídica de seu tempo. Além disso, a concepção do poeta sobre a natureza gêmea do rei não depende de amparo somente constitucional, uma vez que a peça concebe, muito naturalmente, a natureza geminada do rei. Nesse sentido, esperamos que o estudo em pauta contribua para a busca do entendimento da teoria dos Dois Corpos do rei, que se constitui em uma ramificação do pensamento teológico cristão e, consequentemente, essa peça permaneça como marco da teologia política cristã
48
Leitch, Rory. ""A field of Golgotha" and the "Loosing out of Satan" : Protestantism and the intertextuality in Shakespeare's 1-3 Henry VI and John Foxe's Acts & Monuments." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=29833.
Full textAbstract:
Challenging the currently orthodox "New Historicist" conception of Shakespeare's English history plays as a kind of "radically secular" historiography, this thesis attempts to show how Shakespeare's first chronicle play, 1--3HenryVI, was informed by and expressive of Protestant providential historiography. By comparing the texts of the plays with Foxe's Acts and Monuments, the central text of Elizabethan Protestant historiography, the author attempts to show how Foxe's influential history functioned both as an important source for Shakespeare's view of the past in 1--3HenryVI and as a vital intertext in terms of which the play would have been construed as history by Shakespeare's audience. At the heart of this source/intertext dynamic is the figure of Antichrist, a powerful historiographical symbol in Foxe which is adumbrated in Shakespeare's dramaturgy, giving the plays' representation of the violence of the Wars of the Roses era an ineluctably providential character. Having traced the Foxeian intertext in Shakespeare's play, the author concludes by suggesting that, again contrary to the secularizing bent of much recent "New Historicist" criticism, it is precisely because 1--3HenryVI spoke the language of Protestant providential history that Shakespeare's play was significantly "political" in its original late-Elizabethan historical moment.
49
Khan, Amir. "Counterfactual Thinking and Shakespearean Tragedy: Imagining Alternatives in the Plays." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/24310.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation is the application of counterfactual criticism to Shakespearean tragedy—supposing we are to ask, for example, “what if” Hamlet had done the deed, or, “what if” we could somehow disinherit our knowledge of Lear’s madness before reading King Lear. Such readings, mirroring critical practices in history, will loosely be called “counterfactual” readings. The key question to ask is not why tragedies are no longer being written (by writers), but why tragedies are no longer being felt (by readers). Tragedy entails a certain urgency in wanting to imagine an outcome different from the one we are given. Since we cannot change events as they stand, we feel a critical helplessness in dealing with feelings of tragic loss; the critical imperative that follows usually accounts for how the tragedy unfolded. Fleshing out a cause is one way to deal with the trauma of tragedy. But such explanation, in a sense, merely explains tragedy away. The fact that everything turns out so poorly in tragedy suggests that the tragic protagonist was somehow doomed, that he (in the case of Shakespearean tragedy) was the victim of some “tragic flaw,” as though tragedy and necessity go hand in hand. Only by allowing ourselves to imagine other possibilities can we regain the tragic effect, which is to remind ourselves that other outcomes are indeed possible. Tragedy, then, is more readily understood, or felt, as the playing out of contingency. It takes some effort to convince others, even ourselves, that the tragic effect resonates best when accompanied by an understanding that the characters on the page are free individuals. No amount of foreknowledge, on our part or theirs, can save us (or them) from tragedy’s horror.
50
Luke, Nicholas Ian. "Shakespearean arrivals : the irruption of character." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bb8caacb-ef1c-471a-9d3d-9265b2766369.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis re-examines Shakespeare’s creation of tragic character through the concept of ‘arrivals’. What arrives is not an ‘individual’ but what I call a ‘subject’, which is a diffused dramatic process of arriving, rather than a self-contained entity that arrives in a final form. Not all characters are ‘subjects’. A subject only arrives through dramatic ‘events’ that rupture the existing structures of the play-world and the play-text. The generators of these irruptions are found equally in the happenings of plot and in changes of poetic intensity and form. The ‘subject’ is thus a supra- individual irruption that configures new forms of language, structure, and action. Accordingly, I explain why scrupulous historicism’s need for nameable continuums is incommensurate to the irruptive quality of Shakespearean character. The concepts of ‘process’, ‘subject’ and ‘event’ are informed by a variety of thinkers, most notably the contemporary French philosopher Alain Badiou. Badiou develops an ‘evental’ model of subjectivity in which the subject emerges in fidelity to a ‘truth- event’, which breaks into a situation from its ‘void’. Also important is the process- orientated philosophy of Bergson and Whitehead, which stresses that an entity is not a stable substance but a process of becoming. The underlying connection between the philosophers I embrace – also including the likes of Žižek, Kierkegaard, Latour, Benjamin, and Christian thinkers such as Saint Paul and Luther – is that they establish a creative alternative to the deadlock between treating the subject as either a stable substance (humanism) or a decentred product of its place in the world (postmodernism). The subject is not a pre-existing entity but something that comes to be. It is not reducible to its cultural and linguistic circumstances but is precisely what exceeds those circumstances. Such an excessive creativity is what gives rise to Shakespeare’s subjects and, I argue, underpins the continuing force of his drama. But it also produces profound dangers. In Shakespeare, ‘events’ consistently expose subjects to uncertainty, catastrophe, and horror. And these dangers imperil both the subject and the relationship between Shakespeare and the affirmative philosophy of the event.