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Gambling, Stella. "Iconology in The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.325295.
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Rotenberg, Nitzan. "Aristotle in Venice: reconsidering plot and character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, McGill University, 2011. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=97197.
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The Merchant of Venice's seemingly disconnected and interweaving plots contribute to the difficulty of assessing its characters and genre. The comic-tragic ambiguity of the character of Shylock only deepens this ambiguity. There is a precedent in the literature for looking to Aristotle and the Poetics to inform the study of the Shakespeare canon, but few have attempted to understand MV in terms of the taxonomy of ancient classical poetics. I attempt to do this, and find this approach very fruitful for addressing some of the problematic characteristics of the play, especially with regard to plot and character. Specifically, I find that the disunified plot simulates the 'fog' of indecision that surrounds making choices under the constraints of time and limited information, and that the structure of the play places the audience in the position of experiencing how the relatively fixed goals of the characters shift and become distorted as they encounter new and dissonant information.Les intrigues entremelees et sans lien apparent du Marchant de Venise contribuent a rendre la caracterisation de la piece difficile, tant selon le genre que la structure. L'ambiguite du personnage de Shylock, entre comique et tragique, ne fait que renforcer cette incertitude. Certains se sont deja tournes vers Aristote et la Poetique pour construire leur etude litteraire du cannon shakesperien, mais jusqu'ici rares sont ceux qui ont tente de comprendre specifiquement Le MV en s'appuyant sur la taxinomie de la poetique classique ancienne. J'essaie de faire cela, et cette approche me semble enrichir la comprehension de certaines des caracteristiques problematiques de la piece, surtout en ce qui concerne le concept d'intrigue et celui de personnage. En particulier, l'intrigue multiple me semble simuler le "brouillard" d'indecision qui entoure les choix sous contraintes de temps et d'information limitee, et la structure de la piece me semble ainsi permettre a l'audience d'experimenter comment les buts relativement fixes des personnages se deplacent et se transforment, tandis qu'ils font face a des informations nouvelles et dissonantes, a travers une rapide succession de retournements de situation.
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Ward, Caroline B. "The Value of Commerce in The Merchant of Venice." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1278.
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This thesis explores the pervasive role of commerce in Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice, with a particular focus on the characters of Antonio, Bassanio, Shylock, and Portia, and the dual locales of Venice and Belmont. The way in which various characters engage in commerce is a reflection of their individual motives and affiliations. At the same time, the rhetoric of commerce, worth, and value colors the speech of various characters, and influences seemingly extra-commercial considerations such as identity, friendship, religion, socioeconomic status, and love. Ultimately, a close analysis of commercial transaction and language in the play reveals the complex nature of the narrative’s social dynamics and conflicts, and challenges what it means for characters to receive justice and possess agency in the world.
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Ludwig, Carlos Roberto. "Mimesis of inwardeness in Shakespeare's drama : The Merchant of Venice." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/71936.
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Esta Tese de Doutorado tem por objetivo discutir a questão da mimesis da interioridade no Mercador de Veneza, de William Shakespeare. A pesquisa está embasada na obra Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance, de Maus (1995), e na obra Shakespeare Philosophy, de McGinn (2007), na crítica literária da peça. Maus apresenta a interioridade como um constructo social e cultural da Renascença Inglesa. Ela analisa a interioridade tomando como base a oposição entre aparências, consideradas falsas e enganosas na época, e interioridade, que era tida como manifestações sinceras e verdadeiras das dimensões interiores do indivíduo. Contudo, McGinn vai além da discussão de Maus sobre interioridade, ao perceber que Shakespeare representou as dimensões obscuras incontroláveis do indivíduo. Ele apresenta as forças misteriosas que controlam os pendores interiores das personagens. Além disso, a tese busca analisar a constelação de motivos e a retórica da interioridade que representam sentimentos interiores na peça de Shakespeare. Parte da hipótese de que a mimesis shakespeariana da interioridade é representada em sinais, sutis tais como os silêncios, os não-ditos, as rupturas de linguagem, gestos corporais, pathos, contradições de ideias e pensamentos, a consciência, vergonha e atos falhos. Ademais, a mimesis shakespeariana da interioridade é construída através do artifício do espelhamento que é a representação das dimensões interiores e os pendores da mente nos sentimentos, ideias, gestos, pensamentos, comportamento e atitude de outras personagens. Na verdade, Shakespeare não inventou a interioridade, mas aprofundou a representação da interioridade introduzindo traços inovadores na linguagem do drama. Este trabalho também discute o estranho desenvolvimento da crítica sobre a peça, apresentando que a crítica dos séculos XVIII e XIX lia Shylock como um herói trágico, ao passo que a crítica do século XX lia Shylock como um vilão cômico, provavelmente influenciada pelo antissemitismo da primeira metade do século. Essa pesquisa foca sobre a estranha relação entre Antonio e Bassanio, assim como sua relação com Shylock. Sua relação é representada como homoerótica e o desejo de um frívolo sacrifício de Antonio por Bassanio sugere a interioridade de Antonio. Shylock é também representado como o pai primordial da peça e esse detalhe sugere a causa da tristeza de Antonio no começo da peça. Analisa também o teste dos escrínios de Portia e demonstra seu desejo de defraudar o testamento de seu pai, tão logo ela pede que se toque uma canção que sugere em suas rimas o verdadeiro escrínio. Discute os problemas da consciência de Launcelot e da interioridade de Jessica. Analisa também a relação distante entre Jessica e Shylock, como também sua partida da casa de seu pai e roubo de seu dinheiro, como uma forma de afrontar o poder patriarcal. Centra-se também na cegueira de Shylock para com as intenções reais de sua filha. Interpreta a cena do julgamento de Shylock e como Portia forja um julgamento fraudulento, anulando o contrato de Shylock a tomando sua propriedade. Apresenta uma discussão sobre a mimesis shakespeariana de interioridade, com base nas considerações de Auerbach e Dubois, assim como discute o problema do gênero da peça, sugerindo que a peça não é uma mera comédia, mas uma tragicomédia.This Doctorate thesis aims at discussing the issue of mimesis of inwardness in The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare. This survey is based on Maus‘ Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance (1995), McGinn‘s work Shakespeare Philosophy (2007) and the literary criticism on the play. Maus presents inwardness as social and cultural construct of the English Renaissance. She analyses inwardness based on the opposition between appearances, considered false and deceitful in the age, and inwardness, which was taken as true and sincere manifestations of the inward dimensions of the self. However, McGinn goes beyond Maus‘ discussion on inwardness, perceiving that Shakespeare represented the uncontrolled obscure inward dimensions of the self. He presents the mysterious forces which control the characters‘ inward dispositions. Moreover, the thesis aims at analysing the constellation of motifs and the rhetoric of inwardness which represent inward feelings in Shakespeare‘s play. It parts from the hypothesis that Shakespearean mimesis of inwardness is represented in subtle signs such as silences, non-said, breaks in language, bodily gestures, pathos, contradictions in ideas and thoughts, conscience, shame, and verbal slips. Furthermore, Shakespeare‘s mimesis of inwardness is contructed through the mirroring device which is the representation of a character‘s inward dimensions and dispositions of the mind in other character‘s feelings, ideas, thoughts, gestures, behaviour and attitude. Actually, Shakespeare did not invent inwardness, but he deepened the representation of inwardness introducing innovating traits in language in the drama. This work also discusses the awkward development of the criticism on the play, presenting that the 18th and 19th century criticism read Shylock as a tragic hero, whereas 20th century criticism read Shylock as a comic villain probably influenced by anti-Semitism of the first half of the century. This research focuses on the awkward relationship between Antonio and Bassanio, as well as their relationship with Shylock. Their relation is depicted as homoerotic and Antonio‘s desire of a frivolous sacrifice for Bassanio suggests Antonio‘s inwardness. Shylock is also depicted as the primordial father of the play and such detail hints at the cause of Antonio‘s sadness in the beginning of the play. It analyses Portia‘s casket trial and demonstrates her desire of outwitting her father‘s will, as soon as she demands to play a song which suggests in its rhyme the true casket. It discusses the problems of conscience in Launcelot‘s and Jessica‘s inwardness. It also analyses the distant relationship between Jessica and Shylock, as well as her leaving her father‘s house and taking his wealth, as a way of affronting the patriarchal power. It focuses on Shylock‘s blindness towards his daughter‘s real intentions. It analyses the trial scene and how Portia forges a fraudulent trial, undoing Shylock‘s bond and taking his property. It presents a discussion on Shakespeare‘s mimesis of inwardness, based on Auerbach‘s and Dubois‘ assumptions, as well as discusses the problem of the genre of the play, suggesting that the play is not a mere comedy, but a tragicomedy.
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Petherbridge, Steven. "Usury as a Human Problem in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2017. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/28450.
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Shakespeare?s Shylock from the Merchant of Venice is a complex character who not only defies simple definition but also takes over a play in which he is not the titular character. How Shakespeare arrived at Shylock in the absence of a Jewish presence in early modern England, as well as what caused the playwright to humanize his villain when other playwrights had not is the subject of much debate. This thesis shows Shakespeare?s humanizing of Shylock as a blurring of the lines between Jews and Christians, and as such, a shift of usury from a uniquely Jewish problem to a human problem. This shift is then explicated in terms of a changing England in a time where economic necessity challenged religious authority and creating compassion for a Jew on the stage created compassion symbolically for Christian usurers as well.
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MONTANINO, FRANCESCA. "The Merchant of Venice sul palcoscenico della Storia. Interpretazioni regie riscritture." Doctoral thesis, Università di Siena, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11365/1051350.
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La mia ricerca analizza la storia scenica di The Merchant of Venice dal Settecento fino alla nostra contemporaneità. Nella schiera dei classici shakespeariani, il Merchant si colloca senza dubbio tra i più problematici: si tratta di certo di una delle commedie più rappresentate nel mondo, tuttavia il motivo principale della sua attrattività, e al tempo stesso la ragione delle sue complessità, non si ritrova negli elementi connotanti il genere a cui appartiene (trionfo dell’amore romantico sull’antagonista, equivoci, travestimenti e smascheramenti, ecc…), ma nelle ambiguità e contraddizioni che trascendono la struttura del plot. Per questo è stata molto spesso oggetto di operazioni di riscrittura, teatrale o di altro genere, a partire dal primo Settecento fino ai giorni nostri. Molto spesso, in queste pagine come nel destino del Merchant, il centro della riflessione finisce per coincidere con il personaggio di Shylock: l’ebreo shakespeariano - villain estremamente sui generis, per quella sua capacità di trascendere, con il suo dramma concreto e vibrante, il proprio ruolo di oppositore al lieto fine - sopravvive alla memoria dell’opera stessa, diventando una sorta di archetipo per un eterno dibattito sulla questione ebraica. Inevitabilmente molta della fama del play shakespeariano coincide con quella del suo personaggio: Shylock mette in crisi gli equilibri della commedia, e il racconto della sua disfatta diventa spesso il fulcro drammaturgico, a cui gli innamorati di Belmont fanno da pallido contraltare. Il dibattito sull’antisemitismo influenza fortemente la percezione del Merchant fin dall’epoca moderna, e tantissime riscritture sono motivate dalla volontà di redimere il personaggio dalla sua immagine stereotipata, o al contrario di condannarlo definitivamente. Anche quando le rielaborazioni contemporanee si riappropriano della pluralità di punti di vista, presentando il Merchant come un dramma corale, l’ebreo e la sua disfatta emergono sempre in primo piano. Del resto, puntualizza il critico del “New Yorker” Alan Dopkin, “a production of The Merchant of Venice that treats Shylock as anything other than the most interesting person in the play will always fail.” In un percorso che ha il suo centro nell’esperienza teatrale, ho tuttavia cercato quanto più possibile di allargare la visione ad altri linguaggi artistici (letteratura, cinema, poesia), sottolineando le peculiarità di ogni riscrittura alla luce degli scenari sociali e politici in cui si colloca. Gran parte del lavoro si è focalizzato quindi sul confronto tra il testo shakespeariano e le sue rielaborazioni, intese nel senso più ampio di ‘trasformazioni’ (copioni, libri di regia, testi drammaturgici o letterari autonomi, opere filmiche) con l’intento di mettere in evidenza i cambi di prospettiva, gli elementi di continuità e i punti di rottura, i cambiamenti sociali e culturali di cui ogni esperienza è in qualche modo espressione.The Merchant of Venice is undoubtedly one of the most problematic of Shakespearean classics: one of the main reason of its attractiveness and complexity could be found in the ambiguities and contradictions that overwhelmed the structure of the plot. The attempt to investigate such a complex play is the driving force for its many rewritings from the early eighteenth century to nowadays. The research covers almost four centuries of stagings, adaptations and appropriations, identifying the aims that leaded actors, directors and writers to re-read the play through the lens of the present. Despite the research had been particularly focusing on some selected theatrical experiences, the discussion includes other artistic languages as well (literature, cinema, poetry), underlining the peculiarities of each work in relation to the social and political scenarios wherein it spread out. The research proceeds comparing the original Shakespeare’s text with many of its ‘transformations’ (scripts, acting versions, novels, films, etc…) in the attempt to highlight the elements of continuity as well as the breakpoints, the social and cultural changes which emerge from each of these adaptations.
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Rozmovits, Linda. "Private revenge, public punishment : the Merchant of Venice in England, 1870-1929." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.283108.
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Van, Pelt Deborah. ""I stand for sovereignty" : reading Portia in Shakespeare's The merchant of Venice." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2009. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0002860.
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Caretta, Jessica <1992>. "Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: from the play to three graphic novel adaptations." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/21591.
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This Thesis examines three graphic novel adaptations of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice to demonstrate their value as literary products and their possible use in class as effective pedagogical tools. Graphic novels encourage a more active and dynamic relationship between the author, the work, and the reader, proving to be a productive medium to visually adapt the Bard’s plays. The first Chapter serves a theoretical background, providing a definition of adaptation and of graphic novel, an overview of the latter’s main features, and of its respectable cultural and literary status. The developing role of the illustration is then traced in a brief outline of the evolution from Shakespeare’s illustrated plays to children books and, finally, to comic-books and graphic novels. The following Chapter analyses The Merchant of Venice in the adapted versions of Manga Shakespeare, Campfire Classics, and Gareth Hinds from a broader perspective, considering textual adaptation choices, word-image relationship, and general elements such as colour scheme, layout, character design, and setting. The third Chapter compares and contrasts the rendition of specific scenes in the three different adaptations and studies in detail cuts, additions, and other adaptational strategies underlining their effect on the overall reading experience. The final Chapter observes how the use of graphic novels in class can support learning and enhance students’ interest, thanks to the medium’s ability to make the experience more familiar and appealing, often mediating the text’s greatest complexities thanks to graphic representation. Graphic novel literary adaptations are not aimed at making a text easier nor are they stepping stones to the ‘real’ text; rather, they are works with a value in their own, bringing new life to Shakespeare’s plays by bridging the gap through classic literature and the modern-day tendency to privilege visual over textual storytelling.
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Wambach, Amie Elisabeth. "Disabled Epistemologies: Failures of Knowledge and Care in Shakespeares's Merchant of Venice and Othello." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2021. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8969.
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The presence of disabled characters like blind Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice and epileptic Othello are handy physical metaphors for the failures of epistemology that occur in both plays. Disability is often construed as a sort of saboteur of knowledge—disability of all kinds inhibiting the ability to perceive the world as an abled person would. But disability also produces a new, necessary sort of knowledge in order to survive and thrive in an unaccommodating world. A disabled epistemology suggests that knowing is contingent on individual, specific experience of the world. Tied to this issue of disabled epistemology is the issue of care—the field's emphasis on issues of relationality and reciprocity gels with disability's concerns about autonomy, self-determination, and accommodation. The ways in which care succeeds or fails informs us of the ways that disability intersects with class, race, and embodied knowledge. Gobbo is operating within a system that cares about him. Disabled beggars are subject to suspicion but expected to receive charity, and the embodied knowledge required to perform disability to an audience grants him access to that charity. On the other hand, because epilepsy and Otherness are compounded in Othello's society, to embrace embodied knowledge of his epilepsy is to become too foreign. To openly acknowledge and work with his disability would make him more socially vulnerable than he already is, but in ignoring it, Othello makes himself physically vulnerable. The dominant ideology cannot allow Othello to understand himself as disabled.
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Conte, Carolina Siqueira. "Bond; a theory of appropriation for Shakespeare's The merchant of Venice realized in film." Ohio : Ohio University, 2005. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1113337877.
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Van, Pelt Deborah. "“I Stand for Sovereignty”: Reading Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice." Scholar Commons, 2009. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/65.
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Portia serves as a complex and often underestimated character in William Shakespeare's controversial comedy The Merchant of Venice. Using the critical methodologies of New Historicism and feminism, this thesis explores Portia's representation of Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. Striking similarities exist between character and Queen, including physical description, suitors, marriage issues, and rhetoric. In addition, the tripartite marriage at the play's conclusion among Portia, Bassanio, and Antonio represents the relationship Elizabeth Tudor formed between her merchant class and her aristocracy. Shylock serves as a representation of a generic or perhaps Catholic threat to England during the early modern era. Moreover, by examining Portia's language in the trial scene, the play invites audiences to read her as a representative of the learned Renaissance woman, placing special emphasis on the dialectical and rhetorical elements of the language trivium in classical studies. Finally, through a close reading of the mercantile language in the text, Portia can be interpreted as the merchant of the play's title.
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Bazzell, Jennifer Diane. "The Role of Women in The Merchant of Venice: Wives and Daughters Ahead of Their Time." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193464.
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This thesis explores the role of the female characters in Williams Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. Through contextualizing the characters of Portia, Nerissa and Jessica within the world of early modern England, this study explores the ways in which these characters do not conform to traditional Renaissance values regarding the role of women as daughters and wives. By using historical documents such as behavioral manuals, sermons, and "defenses" of women from the late sixteenth and seventeenth century, this thesis explores the ways in which Shakespeare's female characters challenge traditional social norms. Through the comparison of the female characters with Queen Elizabeth and Patient Griselda, this study discusses the implications of the rebellious behavior of the women in The Merchant of Venice. This thesis concludes that Shakespeare purposely challenges strict social views put forward on women by creating female characters who challenge male authority and are celebrated for their behavior.
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Stehr, Claudia. "Shakespeare as transcultural narrative : Te tangata Whai rawa o Weniti = The Māori Merchant of Venice /." e-Book (PDF), 2006. http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/eproducts/ebooks/Shakespeareastransculturalnarrative.pdf.
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Thesis (MA)--Technischen Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, 2006.Title from PDF cover (viewed on 5 October, 2007 ). "Magisterarbeit zur Erlangung des Magistergrades (M.A.) am Fachbereich für Geistes- und Erziehungswissenschaften".
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Eutan, Sharon. "Authenticity and innovation : Shakespeare's scobe 1997-2003, with particular reference to The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, University of London, 2010. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.514198.
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Green, Bryony Rose Humphries. "A book history study of Michael Radford's filmic production William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2008. http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1710/.
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Conte, Carolina Siqueira. "Bonds: A Theory Of Appropriation For Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice Realized In Film." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1113337877.
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Van, Niekerk Marthinus Christoffel. "Shakespearian play deconstructive readings of The merchant of Venice, the tempest, Measure for measure and Hamlet /." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2003. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11092004-115656/.
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Battell, Sophie. "Hospitality in Shakespeare : the case of the Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida and Timon of Athens." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2017. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/108599/.
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This thesis analyses hospitality in three of Shakespeare’s plays: The Merchant of Venice (c.1596-7), Troilus and Cressida (c. 1601-2) and Timon of Athens (c. 1606-7). It draws on ideas from Derrida and other recent theorists to argue that Shakespeare treats hospitality as the site of urgent ethical inquiry. Far more than a mechanical part of the stage business that brings characters on and off the performance space and into contact with one another, hospitality is allied to the darker visions of these troubling plays. Hospitality is a means by which Shakespeare confronts ideas about death and mourning, betrayal, and the problem of time and transience, encouraging us to reconsider what it means to be truly welcoming. That the three plays studied are not traditionally linked is important. The intention is not to shape the plays into a new group, but rather to demonstrate that Shakespeare’s staging of hospitality is far-reaching in its openness. Again, while the thesis is informed by Derrida’s writings, its approach is through close readings of the texts. Throughout, the thesis is careful not to prioritise big moments of spectacle over more subtle explorations of the subject. Thus, the chapter on ‘The Merchant of Venice’ explores the sounds that fill the play and its concern with our senses. Other chapters similarly approach the plays not as exemplars of hospitality but as illuminating problems posed by the complex nature of what it means to be welcoming. The second chapter on ‘Troilus and Cressida’ explores the vulnerability of guests and hosts to one another on and off the battlefield, while the last chapter on ‘Timon of Athens’ argues that the emphasis Shakespeare places on death and mourning problematises the play’s gift economy and its representation of hospitality. Finally, the conclusion glances briefly ahead to ‘The Winter’s Tale’ (c. 1610-11) and the relationship between hospitality and forgiveness. But there are no easy answers to the problem of hospitality in the late plays either, since they, too, remain caught in the dilemma of what it means to be welcoming.
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Pasqualetto, Giulia <1988>. "I canali distributivi nel mercato della cosmetica: la scelta del franchising : il caso “The Merchant of Venice”." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/5135.
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La tesi è incentrata sullo studio degli elementi/strumenti che caratterizzano la scelta del canale distributivo del settore cosmetico, con particolare attenzione al sistema franchising. format distributivo selezionato perché parte della strategia distributiva in via di sviluppo dell'azienda in studio, The Merchant of Venice srl
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Gabbard, Alexandra Lauren Correa. "The demonization of the Jew in Chaucer's "The Prioress's Tale," Shakespeare's The merchant of Venice and Scott's Ivanhoe." Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1843/ECAP-8GCQNM.
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This thesis examines the issue of anti-Semitism throughout three different eras in chosen classics of the English literature- 'The Prioress's Tale' from the Canterbury Tales, The Merchant of Venice and Ivanhoe- comparing and contrasting the demonization of the Jewish characters present in the texts. By examining the three texts, I intend to show the evolution of the demonization of Jews in literature throughout different periods in history. The historical and cultural aspects of the works will be taken into consideration, for anti-Semitism can be clearly traced as an ideology built throughout Western culture as a form of domination and exclusion of minorities. The Lateran Council of 1215 resurrected the spectrum of anti-Semitism by imposing laws such as the prohibition of intermarriage between Jews and Christians or the obligation of different dress for Jews. This is especially visible in the chosen works, for Jews are stigmatized as demonic, pagan, heretic and unclean. A particular trope present in two of the texts in the Christian aversion to usury- a task that was conveniently attributed to the Jews. Since they were considered inferior, such work was thought to suit their lot. Another one is the demonization of the Jewish woman. This is done first by turning her into an object of desire and seduction in both Ivanhoe and The Merchant of Venice, then by trying to force their conversion to Christianity- which happens to the character Jessica but not Rebecca. A theme connected to the previous one is the issue of purity and cleanliness. Jews are seen as particularly unclean, being associated with negative images such as latrines, mutilation, poison, sexual depravity and witchcraft. All of the anti-Semitic feelings above can be detected in the three works, and they can be effectively contrasted and compared in order to better understand the repudiation of the Jews in literature. This analysis is done by (1) the collection of historical data, related to anti-Semitism, from the different settings in which the literary works were written and the examination of it via cultural studies and (2) a comparative study of the Jewish characters and demonic themes present in the texts. Data have been collected from historical texts, archives and manuscripts. This dissertation challenges the reader to develop a critical reading of canonical writings, questioning anti-Semitism via demonization of the Jews in literature by offering a view of these literary texts of different genres and settings.Esta dissertação examina o tema do anti-Semitismo nas diferentes eras de clássicos selecionados da literatura inglesa - "The Prioress's Tale" de Canterbury Tales, The Merchant of Venice e Ivanhoe-- comparando e contrastando a demonização dos personagens judeus presentes nos textos. Pela análise dos três textos, eu procuro demonstrar a evolução da demonização do judeu na literatura em diferentes períodos históricos. Os aspectos históricos e culturais dos textos serão considerados, pois o anti-Semitismo pode ser claramente traçando como uma ideologia construída pela cultura Ocidental como uma forma de dominação e exclusão de minorias. O Quarto Concílio de Latrão, de 1215, ressuscitou o espectro do anti-Semitismo, impondo leis como a proibição do matrimônio entre judeus e cristãos e a obrigatoriedade para os judeus de usarem vestimentas diferenciadas. Isto é especialmente visível no corpus escolhido, pois os judeus são estigmatizados como demoníacos, pagãos, heréticos e impuros. Um tropo em particular em dois dos textos demonstram a aversão cristã à usúria -- tarefa que foi convenientemente atribuída aos judeus. Como eles eram considerados inferiores, tal função era apropriada para eles. Outro tropo é o da demonização da mulher judia. Isto é feito, primeiramente, através da sua transformação da personagems Rebecca e Jéssica em objetos de desejo e sedução em ambos IvanhoeIvanhoe e Merchant of Venice. Tentativas insistentes de conversão das personagens judias também demonstram as seguidas tentativas de assimilação das personagems judias. Um tema conectado com o citado acima é a questão de pureza e impureza. Os judeus são 6 tidos como particularmente impuros, sendo associados com imagens negativas com latrinas, mutilação, veneno, atos sexuais depravados e bruxaria. Todos os sentimentos anti-Semíticos citados acima podem ser encontrados nos três textos, e podem ser efetivamente contrastados e comparados para proporcionar um melhor entendimento da repudiação do judeu na literatura. Esta análise é feita por (1) a coleta de dados históricos, relacionados ao anti-Semitismo, das diferentes épocas nas quais as obras foram escritas e sua interpretação através da linha de estudos culturais e (2) um estudo comparativo dos personagens judeus e dos temas demoníacos presentes nos textos. Dados foram coletados de textos históricos, arquivos e manuscritos. Esta dissertação desafia o leitor a desenvolver uma leitura crítica dos textos canônicos, questionando o anto- semitismo através da demonização do judeu na literatura, oferecendo um panorama do mesmo em textos literários de diferentes gêneros e contextos.
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Lindner, Jakob. "“When shall we laugh?”: Gratiano and the two faces of comedy in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-170753.
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Comedy is an inherently pleasurable phenomenon with beneficial psychological functions, but its potential to bring on undesirable and socially destabilizing consequences is less intuitively obvious. In this essay, I argue that one of the hitherto under-recognized features of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is its covert problematization of the phenomenon of comedy itself, and that the play invites its audience to become more aware of in what situations laughter is constructive and appropriate. I apply psychological and cultural-historical theories of humor— specifically, Freudian relief theory and Bakhtinian thought on laughter and festivity—as a framework for interpreting the play, with a particular emphasis on the secondary protagonist called Gratiano. I argue that Gratiano serves as a personification of comedy, whose function is to problematize it and demonstrate its positive as well as negative attributes in relation to seriousness and restraint. Gratiano’s laughter-inducing antics compel audience members to sympathize with him in the dialectic which Shakespeare sets up between him and other characters, but the play also portrays his jovial behavior as concomitant with less desirable traits which his comedy successfully obscures. While the character presents comedy as attractive and instinctively preferable to propriety and decorum, he also shows how the allure of laughter and comedy may be used by disingenuous actors to provide an attractive veneer for immoral or abhorrent behavior.
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Bedin, Arianna <1994>. "CONDIVISIONE DI SIGNIFICATI DI UN PRODOTTO CULTURE-BASED: UN INDAGINE SULLA PERCEZIONE DELLA LINEA “ THE MERCHANT OF VENICE” DI MAVIVE." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/15822.
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Questo lavoro nasce dalla volontà di analizzare la valorizzazione di un business collegato a prodotti culture-based. In modo particolare, come l’azienda riesce a posizionarsi sul mercato offrendo prodotti che esaltino i saperi e la cultura e analizzando se il messaggio culturale proposto dall’impresa viene recepito nel modo corretto.
La tesi è collegata ad un progetto di ricerca dell’università Ca’foscari di Venezia in collaborazione con l’azienda Mavive.
Nella prima parte della tesi verrà esposta una parte teorica riguardante la definizione e le caratteristiche di un bene o servizio, la sensibilità del consumatore verso l’offerta e la percezione dei valori del prodotto. Dopo di che, verrà introdotto il concetto di prodotto culture-based analizzandolo tramite il suo collegamento con la valorizzazione di arte, storia e cultura di un paese. Successivamente verrà analizzato il prodotto culture based in ottica di prodotto di lusso e di eccellenza ed inoltre verrà analizzata la sua relazione con il concetto di Made in Italy.
Nella seconda parte della tesi, invece, verranno esaminate le metodologie d’indagine adottate per l’indagine sull’identità dei prodotti facenti parte la linea di profumi chiamata The Merchant of Venice, esempio lampante di un prodotto culture-based. In questa fase verrà introdotto il processo di ricerca e verrano scomposti i significati legati al prodotto ed effettuate delle ricerche sulla percezione che i soggetti hanno della linea.
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Burtin, Tatiana. "Figures de l’avarice et de l’usure dans les comédies : The Merchant of Venice de Shakespeare, Volpone de Jonson et L’Avare de Molière." Thesis, Paris 10, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011PA100136/document.
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L’émergence d’un « ‘esprit’ capitaliste » (Weber) en Angleterre et en France au tournant des XVIe-XVIIe siècles a favorisé la reconfiguration des rapports entre avaritia et cupiditas, qui déterminent tout le champ sémantique de l’usure et de l’intérêt. Cette thèse postule que cette évolution est sensible dans la comédie française et anglaise de l’époque, et plus particulièrement chez les grands dramaturges qui ont marqué l’imaginaire collectif en mettant en scène des personnages avares. À partir d’un type comique issu à la fois du théâtre antique et du canon religieux bien établi dans l’Occident chrétien, l’appréhension nouvelle de l’argent comme objet et comme signe permet de construire une véritable figure moderne de l’avarice. Shylock, Volpone et Harpagon sont suspendus entre un or quasi divin, et l’univers plus ou moins connu de l’argent, qu’ils pensent maîtriser grâce à leur trésor. S’ils s’intègrent parfaitement à la fluidité moderne des échanges économiques, culturels et sociaux, ils participent aussi à leur dévalorisation, par une activité et un discours proprement usuraires. Leur entourage tente de soumettre cette « labilité » (Simmel) suscitée par l’économie de l’usurier-avare à un nouvel ordre, cosmique, éthique ou politique. Le conflit se résout devant la justice, instance discriminatoire externe et prétexte à la mise en abyme du jugement social. L’analyse finale de ces dénouements permet de comprendre le travail de chaque auteur sur la forme et la fonction du comique, à travers le texte, les genres, ou une esthétique de l’espace. Elle montre que chacun s’attache à valoriser l’apport de son art au public dans une période de crise socio-économiqueThe emergence of a capitalist ‘spirit’ (Weber) in England and France at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries played a leading role in reconfiguring the relation between avaritia and cupiditas which determine the whole semantic field of usury and interest. This thesis postulates that this evolution is perceptible in French and British comedy at that time, in particular for some of the playwrights who staged miserly characters imprinted in our collective imagination. Starting from a comic type as common in Greek and Roman drama as it was in the well-established religious canon in the Christian West, a new understanding of money as object and as sign leads to the construction of a truly modern figure of avarice.Shylock, Volpone (Mosca) and Harpagon, hang on to a almost divine idea of gold and the more or less known world of money, medium they think they control through their treasure, and which is about to become the universal equivalent of any good. Those characters fit perfectly into this modern dynamic of economic, cultural and social exchanges, but they also contribute, with their strictly usurious speech, to its depreciation. Their entourage tries to tame this « lability » of values (Simmel) generated by the economy of the usurer-miser to a new order – a cosmic, ethical or political order. Conflicts are resolved by a court of law, external discriminatory authority and pretext for the mise-en-abyme of social judgment. The analysis of these denouements allows one to understand the work of each author in the comic form and function, through the text, the genres, or an aesthetic of space. It shows how much each author strived to value the contribution of his art to the public, in a time of socio-economic crisis
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Mngomezulu, Thulisile Fortunate. "Central women characters and their influence in Shakespeare, with particular reference to the Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra." Thesis, University of Zululand, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/1114.
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A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009.Shakespeare portrayed women in his plays as people who should be valued. This is an opinion I held in the past, and one I still hold after intense reading of his works and that of authors such as Marlowe, Webster, Thomas Kyd and others. Shakespeare created his female characters out of a mixture of good and evil. When they interact with others, either the best or the worst in them is brought out: extreme evil in some cases and perfect goodness in others. I hope the reader will enjoy this study as much as I did, and that it will enhance their reading of Shakespeare‟s works and cultivate their interest in him. This study is intended to motivate other people to change their view that Shakespeare‟s works are inaccessible. Those who hold this view will come to know that anyone anywhere can read, understand and appreciate the works of this the greatest writer of all times. In his study Shakespeare’s World, Johanyak says, “I wrote [it] to help students appreciate the depth and breadth of Shakespeare‟s global awareness. Shakespeare was not only a London playwright, but a man of the world who dramatized his perceptions to create a lasting legacy of his times” (2004: ix).
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Beskin, Anna. "Good Girl, Bad Girl: The Role of Abigail and Jessica in The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2007. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0001900.
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Eward-Mangione, Angela. "A Maslovian approach to the motivations of Shakespeare's transvestite heroines in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, and The Merchant of Venice." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2007. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0002087.
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Miyasaki, Maren H. "The Covenant: How the Tension and Interpretation Within Puritan Covenant Doctrine Pushes Toward More Equality in English Marriage." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2009. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1962.
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The Puritans constituted a very vocal influential minority during the time of Shakespeare. One of their more interesting ideas was the doctrine of the covenant, which explained why a transcendent God would care for fallen human beings. God, for Puritans, voluntarily bound himself in a covenant to man. The interrelations of elements of grace and works make it difficult to interpret what a covenant should be like: more like a modern contract or more like a feudalistic promise system? Unlike a contract, God never ends the covenant even when humans disregard their commitment, but instead helps humans fulfill their obligations by means of mercy. The covenant also sets out specific limitations that each party is required to fulfill like a contract. Puritans applied this pattern of the covenant not only to their relationship with God, but to other relationships like business, government, and most interestingly marriage. I will focus on how Shakespeare sets out this same covenantal pattern between man and God in his depiction in Portia's and in Helena's marriages respectively. I use sixteenth and seventeenth century Puritan treatises and sermons as well as secondary experts to illustrate Shakespeare's invocation of a Puritan marriage. This Puritan interpretation of the marriage covenant points toward equality by making the couple equally obligated in the contract, yet requiring more than mere obligation. These authors believed that the marriage covenant should not just be for procreation, but cohabitation and communion of the mind.
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Shaheen, Yousef Sa'id. "The production of meaning and the mechanism of its change : language and theatrical materiality with specific reference to 'The Merchant of Venice', 'As You Like It' and 'Twelfth Night'." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.363422.
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Wong, Yan Jenny. "The translatability of the religious dimension in Shakespeare from page to stage, from West to East : with reference to The Merchant of Venice in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6240/.
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The research is a hermeneutic-cum-semiotic approach to the study of the translatability of religious language in a secular play, using The Merchant of Venice in China as a reference. Under the ”power turn” or “political turn” in translation studies, omissions and untranslatability of religious material are often seen as the product of censorship or self-censorship in the prevalent socio-political context. But the theology of each individual translating agent is often neglected as an important contributing factor to such untranslatability. This thesis offers a comprehensive approach in tracing the hermeneutical process of the translators/directors as a reader and the situational process and semiotics of theatre translation, which altogether gives rise to the image of translated literature which in turn influences audience reception. This interdisciplinary study thus traverses the disciplines of translation studies, hermeneutics, theatre studies, and sociology. In this thesis I argue that while translation theorists under the current “sociological turn” view social factors as the overarching factors in determining translation activities and strategies, I will show how the interaction between the translator’s or the dramatist’s theology and religious values interact with the socio-cultural milieu to carve out a unique drama production. Often, as one can see from my case studies, it is the religious values of the translating agents that become the overarching factor in determining the translation product, rather than social factors. This thesis further argues that the translatability of religious discourse should be understood in a broader sense according to the seven dimensions proposed by Ninian Smart, rather than merely focusing on untranslatability as a result of semantic and linguistic differences.
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Alsaai, Hayan Jomah. "A critical assessment of the translations of Shakespeare into Arabic : a close examination of the translations of three tragedies; Othello, Julius Caesar and Macbeth - and one Comedy; The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.298787.
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Eward-Mangione, Angela. "A Maslovian Approach To The Motivations Of Shakespeare’s Transvestite Heroines In The Two Gentelmen Of Verona, As You Like It, and The Merchant of Venice." Scholar Commons, 2007. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/702.
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"Motivation" is the force that drives an individual to perform a certain action. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), an American psychologist profoundly influenced by the existential and teleological paradigms, expounded a motivation theory that remains precise and replicable, as well as applicable to other spheres of study, including the humanities. Indeed, psychology experts and non-specialists are by and large familiar with Maslow's Pyramid of Human Needs. Moreover, despite the abundance of literary criticism that utilizes Freudian-based theory to analyze the motivations of literary characters, critics have largely neglected the use of other paradigms, including Maslow's. In this thesis, I use Maslow's texts as support for identifying the motivations of women characters who dress as men in Shakespeare's dramas. I also simultaneously employ Maslow's theory to illuminate the parallels in these characters' motivations and the varying need levels that Maslow develops in his hierarchy. After a comprehensive review of the literary criticism that addresses the dramatic motif of cross-dressing in early modern England and an extensive explanation of the history of motivation theory up to and including that of Abraham Maslow, I treat the following plays by William Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, and The Merchant of Venice in conjunction with Maslow's Pyramid of Human Needs. Through this analysis, I demonstrate that Julia cross-dresses to satisfy needs on the level of Love/Belonging; Rosalind cross-dresses for reasons that correspond to the Safety level, then to the Esteem level; and Portia demonstrates motivations that correspond to Maslow's Love/Belonging and Esteem levels.
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Basso, Ann Mccauley. "The Portia Project: The Heiress of Belmont on Stage and Screen." Scholar Commons, 2011. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3000.
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Until now, there has not been a performance history of The Merchant of Venice that focuses on Portia, the main character of the play. Although she has the most lines, the most stage time, and represents the nexus of the action, Portia has often been hidden in Shylock's shadow, and this dissertation seeks to bring her into the spotlight. The Portia Project is a contribution to literary and theatrical history; its primary goal is to provide a tool for scholars and teachers. Moreover, because of Merchant's notoriously problematic nature, the play invites different perspectives. By presenting the diverse ways that actors and directors have approached the play and resolved the cruxes associated with Portia, I aim to demonstrate that there are multiple valid ways in which to interpret the text.
Chapter one explores the literary criticism of The Merchant of Venice, centering on the treatment of the play's female protagonist. The early twentieth century produced wide-ranging interpretations of Portia, and the last fifty years have seen her analyzed through the lenses of feminism, cultural materialism, psychoanalytic criticism, and queer theory. Having analyzed the literary criticism, I next concentrate on the performance history of The Merchant of Venice, with particular attention to Portia.
I then turn to those who have performed the role in a wide-range of theatrical venues. Chapter three features the input of Seana McKenna--star of the Canadian stage and a mainstay of the Stratford Festival in Ontario--who played Portia in a 1989 production. Michael Langham directed in an atmosphere of trepidation over the play's reception and its portrayal of Shylock's forced conversion. For chapter four I interviewed Marni Penning, a veteran of the smaller repertory companies that are sprinkled about the United States. For chapter five I talked to Edward Hall, artistic director of the all-male Propeller Theatre Company, and Kelsey Brookfield, a young black actor who played Portia for the group's 2009 production. By dressing all of the "male" characters alike, Hall de-emphasized the differences between the Christians and the Jews, while Portia, Nerissa, and Jessica were presented not as women, but as men, who have feminized themselves to survive in their harsh environment. Lily Rabe played Portia for the 2010 production of Merchant in Central Park, opposite Al Pacino's Shylock. The production was so successful that it moved to Broadway in October of that year, and Rabe's intelligent portrayal won universal accolades.
The Portia Project explores the perceptions of literary critics, theatrical reviewers, actors, and directors, in order to ascertain how representations and expectations of Shakespeare's most learned heroine have changed over the years and to rescue her from Shylock's shadow. By combining the disciplines of literary criticism, theatre, and film, an evolving picture of Portia emerges, revealing Portia's complexity and her centrality to The Merchant of Venice.
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Beattie, Laura Isobel Helen. "Politics of community in Shakespeare's comic commonwealths." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33052.
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This thesis explores the politics of community in five Shakespearean comedies: The Comedy of Errors (1594), The Merchant of Venice (1596-8), Measure for Measure (1603-4), The Tempest (1611) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613). The idea of community addresses many issues usually thought to belong to 'high politics'. Thinking about this topic therefore enables us to articulate a notion of the political firmly grounded within the functioning of the commonwealth at a local level and as a state of interpersonal relations. This thesis has three key aims. Firstly, it argues that the plays highlight the responsibility of all community members, no matter their gender or status, in shaping and contributing to their political environment by displaying civic virtue, working to obtain justice and influencing their ruler's behaviour. By so doing, it focuses on the processes of civic engagement and the political implications of everyday life within a community which have often been neglected in readings of Shakespeare's work thus far. Secondly, this thesis illustrates the inseparability of ethics and politics. It demonstrates throughout that relationships between individuals within a community can have widereaching implications, whether that be in terms of the existence of trust between friends, family members or fellow citizens; the importance of consent existing between subjects and ruler; or the ability of fellow-feeling to confer a sense of agency upon subjects. Lastly, it contends that Shakespeare's assessment of the commonwealth in his comedies, with its emphasis on civic values and on the relationship between the community and the individual, remains attuned to Aristotelian and Ciceronian thought, in contrast to the Tacitean influences critics have detected in the darkness and scepticism of his tragedies and histories. Shakespeare's comedies therefore question the commonly accepted paradigm in early modern intellectual history that Tacitus' prominence increased greatly in the intellectual climate of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, while Aristotle's and Cicero's diminished. Moving away from the predominant focus on the tragedies and histories in analyses of Shakespeare's political thought, this thesis foregrounds the significance of citizenship, the household and friendship and reassesses the role of the comedies in Shakespeare's thinking about politics.
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Harelik, Elizabeth A. "Shrews, Moneylenders, Soldiers, and Moors: Tackling Challenging Issues in Shakespeare for Young Audiences." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461187189.
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Major, Rafael M. "Wisdom and Law: Political Thought in Shakespeare's Comedies." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2002. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3277/.
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In this study of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and Measure for Measure I argue that the surface plots of these comedies point us to a philosophic understanding seldom discussed in either contemporary public discourse or in Shakespearean scholarship. The comedies usually involve questions arising from the conflict between the enforcement of law (whether just or not) and the private longings (whether noble or base) of citizens whose yearnings for happiness tend to be sub- or even supra-political. No regime, it appears, is able to respond to the whole variety of circumstances that it may be called upon to judge. Even the best written laws meet with occasional exceptions and these ulterior instances must be judged by something other than a legal code. When these extra-legal instances do arise, political communities become aware of their reliance on a kind of political judgment that is usually unnoticed in the day-to-day affairs of public life. Further, it is evident that the characters who are able to exercise this political judgment, are the very characters whose presence averts a potentially tragic situation and makes a comedy possible. By presenting examples of how moral and political problems are dealt with by the prudent use of wisdom, Shakespeare is pointing the reader to a standard of judgment that transcends any particular (or actual) political arrangement. Once we see the importance of the prudent use of such a standard, we are in a position to judge what this philosophic wisdom consists of and where it is to be acquired. It is just such an education with which Shakespeare intends to aid his readers.
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Criswell, Christopher C. "Networks of Social Debt in Early Modern Literature and Culture." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc799514/.
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This thesis argues that social debt profoundly transformed the environment in which literature was produced and experienced in the early modern period. In each chapter, I examine the various ways in which social debt affected Renaissance writers and the literature they produced. While considering the cultural changes regarding patronage, love, friendship, and debt, I will analyze the poetry and drama of Ben Jonson, Lady Mary Wroth, William Shakespeare, and Thomas Middleton. Each of these writers experiences social debt in a unique and revealing way. Ben Jonson's participation in networks of social debt via poetry allowed him to secure both a livelihood and a place in the Jacobean court through exchanges of poetry and patronage. The issue of social debt pervades both Wroth's life and her writing. Love and debt are intertwined in the actions of her father, the death of her husband, and the themes of her sonnets and pastoral tragicomedy. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596), Antonio and Bassanio’s friendship is tested by a burdensome interpersonal debt, which can only be alleviated by an outsider. This indicated the transition from honor-based credit system to an impersonal system of commercial exchange. Middleton’s A Trick to Catch the Old One (1608) examines how those heavily in debt dealt with both the social and legal consequences of defaulting on loans.
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LOMBARDO, SIMONE. "La croce dei mercanti. Genova, Venezia e la crociata mediterranea nella seconda metà del Trecento." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/119855.
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La tesi è rivolta all’indagine dell’ideale crociato nel contesto veneziano e genovese durante la seconda metà del XIV secolo: il richiamo della crociata è un metro indicativo per approfondire la mentalità e la situazione dei ceti mercantili nel mondo mediterraneo. Ho indagato le reazioni umane e psicologiche alla «crisi del Trecento», analizzando i mutamenti subiti dall’idea di crociata, il cambio di obiettivi, partecipanti e attrattiva: la crociata non sembra più un oggetto in grado di rispondere alle esigenze spirituali del momento. È stata indagata la percezione della crociata e gli atteggiamenti di genovesi e veneziani, tra attrattiva e indifferenza. Ho approfondito la contrazione economico-navale dei due centri, la mutata sensibilità delle cronache, il distacco mentale dall’Oriente, il sentimento del pericolo turco, il cambio nella religiosità e l’inquietudine percepita negli ambienti marittimi. Ho indagato la frontiera del Mediterraneo orientale e la reale partecipazione di genovesi e veneziani alle crociate trecentesche, mostrando la condotta pragmatica dei mercanti. Genovesi e veneziani non sembrano dediti solo al guadagno, senza una spinta ideale: molti privati partecipano alle spedizioni crociate. Tuttavia essi erano coscienti della complessità della realtà e soggetti a nuove difficoltà, dunque la loro risposta era molto più cauta.The thesis analyzes the impact of the Crusader ideal in the Venetian and Genoese context during the second half of the fourteenth century. The call for the Later Crusades seems an indicative case for delving into the mentality and situation of the merchant classes in the Mediterranean world. I investigated the human and psychological reactions to the “crisis”, analyzing the changes undergone by the idea of Crusade in objectives, participants and attraction: the Crusade no longer seemed to be capable of responding to the spiritual needs. The attitudes of Genoese and Venetians were then investigated, between attraction and indifference. It is analyzed the economic and naval contraction of the two centers, the changed sensitivity, the mental detachment from the East, the feeling of Turkish danger, the changes in religiosity and the anxiety perceived. Finally, I investigated the Eastern Mediterranean frontier and the real participation of Genoese and Venetians in the fourteenth-century Crusades, showing the pragmatic behavior of merchants. Genoese and Venetians did not seem to be only dedicated to profit and devoid of an idealistic drive: many private individuals participated in the Crusade expeditions. However, they were aware of the complexity of reality and were subjects to new difficulties.
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Londeix, Olivier. "Du client au consommateur : Casino, une chaîne succursaliste alimentaire française (1898-1960)." Thesis, Paris 10, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018PA100111.
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Les chaînes de magasins d’alimentation et d’approvisionnement diffusent leurs succursales à partir de la fin du XIXe siècle dans les pays industrialisés. Leur avantage concurrentiel repose sur l’intégration de la fonction de grossiste. Fondée par Geoffroy Guichard à Saint-Étienne en 1898, Casino est la seule société succursaliste française à avoir conservé ses archives. L’histoire de l’entreprise permet d’identifier les dispositifs d’intégration de catégories de plus en plus diverses d’acheteurs au marché des biens de consommation : l’attachement à la marque-enseigne et aux marques propres, la professionnalisation de la vente. Les tensions peuvent se lire dans les archives entre la mise en application de principes fordistes de standardisation et la volonté de renforcer le lien de clientèle. Dès avant l’unification du marché français par une nouvelle génération d’opérateurs, les succursalistes entament un processus de fabrique du consommateur - un acteur détaché des relations de fidélités traditionnelles. En France, les chaînes succursalistes sont à l’origine du passage du comptoir, au libre-service et aux supermarchés - en 1960 chez Casino. Dans cette lutte séculaire entre deux principes théoriques antagoniques (le commerce et la distribution), l’État se présente en position d’arbitre, sommé d’engager la « réforme du commerce », un processus débouchant finalement sur le triomphe de la grande distributionFood and supply chains spread their branches since the end of the 19th century in industrialized countries. Their competitive advantage is based on the integration of the wholesaler function. Founded by Geoffroy Guichard in Saint-Étienne in 1898, Casino is the only French supply chain to have kept its archives. The company's history makes it possible to identify the tools used in order to integrate more and more categories of buyers, in the consumer goods market. For example, the attachment to the brand-name and the private labels, the emergence of marketing. Tensions can be read in the archives between the application of Fordist principles of standardization and the desire to strengthen the customer relationship. Even before the unification of the French market by a new generation of operators, the branch operators undertake the making of consumer - an actor detached from traditional loyalties. In France, chains open the way to self-service and the first supermarkets - in 1960 for Casino. Confined between two antagonistic theoretical principles (“commerce” and distribution), the state is in the position of arbiter, summoned to engage the « reform of the trade », a process finally leading to the triumph of mass retailing
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Paranthoën, Jean Baptiste. "L’organisation des circuits courts par les intermédiaires : la construction sociale de la proximité dans les marchés agroalimentaires." Thesis, Dijon, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016DIJOL020.
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La thèse porte sur l’institutionnalisation de la proximité dans les marchés agroalimentaires et la place qu’occupent un certain nombre d’intermédiaires non économiques (salariés d’association, chercheurs, membres du ministère de l’Agriculture, conseillers des chambres d’agriculture) dans ce processus. En variant les échelles d’enquête, du national au départemental, et en articulant les méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives, ce travail pointe le paradoxe que constitue le développement de ces agents à mesure que la proximité est définie et objectivée comme caractéristique vertueuse de la relation marchande. A partir d’une sociologie des institutions marchandes attentive à l’étude concomitante des conditions historiques et sociales de la construction des marchés et de leurs logiques concrètes de fonctionnement, il s’agit de restituer les luttes pour le monopole de la définition légitime des « circuits courts » entendus comme catégorie d’organisation marchande. Dans un contexte de reconfiguration des alliances qui encadraient et hiérarchisaient jusqu’alors les marchés agroalimentaires, l’analyse montre que le rapprochement des agriculteurs et des consommateurs dans les échanges marchands repose sur la réduction de leur distance sociale et politique. Mais la structuration des « circuits courts » n’est finalement permise qu’au prix de l’autonomisation d’agents d’intermédiations qui contribuent à les légitimer et à les définir, dans le même temps qu’ils tendent à rendre invisible leurs propres pratiques. En accédant à une position réticulaire sur ces marchés, ces intermédiaires participent ainsi à redéfinir les frontières de l’espace des producteursThe dissertation deals with the institutionalisation of proximity in agri-food markets and the place occupied in this process by non-economic intermediaries (employees of associations, researchers, members of staff from the ministry of Agriculture, advisers of the chambers of agriculture). By varying the scales of investigation, from the national to the departmental level, and by articulating qualitative and quantitative methods, this work points out the paradox that constitute the development of those intermediary agents, as proximity is progressively defined and objectified as a virtuous component of the merchant relationship. On the basis of a sociology of merchant institutions attentive to study concurrently historical and social conditions of market constructions and their specific operating logics, we aim to restore the struggles for the monopoly of the legitimate definition of “short supply chain”, understood as a category of merchant organization. In the context of reconfiguration of alliances which previously framed and ranked agri-food markets, the analysis shows that the linking of farmers and consumers in market exchange rests on the reduction of their social and political distance. But finally, the structuration of “short supply chain” is only allowed because of the self-empowerment of intermediary agents contributing to legitimize and define them, as in the same time they make invisible their own practices. Therefore, by gaining a reticular position on those markets, the intermediaries contribute to redefine the frontiers of the producers’ space
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Chien, Wan-hsiang, and 簡婉湘. "Eloquence in The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 2011. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/47451706287820241106.
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碩士國立彰化師範大學
英語學系
100
The thesis aims to prove Shylock is a tragic and eloquent Jew through the applications of Walker Gibson’s mock reader theory and Denis Donoghue's argument that informs his book, On Eloquence. Walker Gibson’s mock reader theory is applied to read The Merchant of Venice emphasizing the play’s presentation of Shylock’s struggle in a Christianized society. Shylock’s speeches in five scenes are examined to prove he sacrifices himself for his nation and people. Besides, Donoghue’s applied reading is helpful to examine the speaker’s manipulation on Shylock’s performative and purposeful eloquence. Chapter one includes an overview of the thesis and literature reviews on The Merchant of Venice, Walker Gibson’s mock reader theory, and eloquence. Chapter two includes a summary of the mock reader theory, a critical review on eloquence and Donoghue’s On Eloquence. Chapter three includes Gibsonian applied reading and Donoghue’s On Eloquence applied reading. Chapter four is the thesis’ results and contribution.
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Huang, Huei Ling, and 黃惠玲. "Ideological conflicts in the merchant of Venice." Thesis, 1993. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/29308871597781736167.
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Tsao, Samuel Wen-pin, and 曹文坪. "Irony of Mercy in The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 1999. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/98763212594674761006.
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碩士國立中興大學
外國語文學系
87
This thesis provides an ironic point of view of looking at The Merchant of Venice, which people used to regard as a romantic comedy. Going through these ironic parts hidden in the play itself and the characters like Antonio, Bassanio, Portia, and Shylock, we may find that this play reveals some serious social issues: that Antonio may not be such a good man and he has a “strong” love for Bassanio, that Bassanio loves both money and Antonio more than he loves Portia, that Portia may be intelligent but never be merciful enough to speak for mercy, and that Shylock’s being bad is only a reaction to what people have done to him and his miserable result makes this comedy not so comic at all, etc. These ironic parts make this play no more a simpler comedy, but, instead, they bring the readers more thoughts to think about, such as humanity and similarity between all these characters in this play and us, etc. They are only human beings like us, which means that they possess both good and bad qualities at the same time. There is no saint or perfect one in this play. Therefore, “mercy,” spoken by Portia in this play, turns out to be the biggest irony in this play and the word mercy should not be used as a method for punishment because no one, including them and the readers, has any right to decide it. It’s up to God.
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Chou, Jia Cih, and 周家慈. "The Force of Objects in The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 2015. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/67328004806293754801.
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碩士國立政治大學
英國語文學系
104
The Merchant of Venice has long been discussed with the view of race, gender and religion. These immaterial aspects, however, are not able to depict the totality of the play. There are many material objects in the play, those objects which strongly involved in characters’ relationships. The thesis aims to explore when people grant force on objects and objects act upon people in return by examining objects in the play. The importance of objects can be found in three relationships: Shylock and Christianity, parents and children, love and friendship. It is obvious that objects function diversely in different situation and objects do have influence on characters. Ludwig Wittgenstein starts his linguistic philosophy with St. Augustin’s observation: the use of languages starts from naming objects. However, Wittgenstein thinks that languages function in activities, so we should consider the function of language within activities of life instead of an abstract meaning. The way people use languages can be seen as participating in activities which presents the form of life. Similarly, objects function differently in activities and have diverse impact on characters. Drama is formed by many activities and reflects people’s life. Through finding the importance of characters and objects in The Merchant of Venice, the result can reflect people’s real form of life.
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Pettengill, Richard. "Mediatization and reception in Peter Sellars' The Merchant of Venice /." 2003. 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:3097149.
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Melo, Sergio N. "Deconstructing the Transhistorical in Contemporary Productions of The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/24368.
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This dissertation critiques four stagings of The Merchant of Venice observed in three theatrical cultures of the Anglophone world and argues that engaging productions of this script take into account its self-deconstructive character as one of its most decisive ordering principles. The dissertation draws on Derrida's Deconstruction, stressing that, according to the acknowledged father of the movement, texts do have transcendental traces. It discusses themes such as anti-Semitism versus ethnic intolerance,homosexuality verus somody, carnivalization, and the representation of emotions.
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HUANG, JESSICA SHU-YUAN, and 黃淑媛. "The Constructions of Self and Space in Shakespeare's「The Merchant of Venice」." Thesis, 2004. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/97267864007865695069.
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碩士輔仁大學
英國語文學系
92
This thesis investigates the constructions of self and the fluidity of space in the sixteen century, with specific focus on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Grounded with a new historical reading and applied a postmodern theory on space, I discuss how the development of self is linked with space and the changeable spatiality makes the process of self-identity incomplete. The focus of Chapter One is on the way of constructions of self in the sixteenth Elizabethan England. By historicizing the sociopolitical background in the sixteenth century, I discuss the existence of “other” is needed in the way of constructions of self. Also, the market-oriented social atmosphere makes the self-identity inseparable with personal possessions. The radical change in this era change the stable self-image as The Merchant of Venice discloses them. The blossom of capitalism in this age also changes the concept of space. Chapter Two explores the power of capitalism and money-oriented concern change the spatiality of the two worlds in this play─Venice and Belmont─and moreover, makes the two opposite spaces become similar and mirror each other. I argue that by characters’ spatial practices in a certain space, the construction of space can be reshaped or deconstructed. In Chapter Three, the two issues of self and space will be brought together. I examine the relationship between the self and space and further to suggest that the self-identity is hardly to achieve results from the collapse of different spaces, such as the public space and the private space. The non-places in The Merchant of Venice help me demonstrate the absence of private space and its relationship with self-constructions. To sum up, identity formations in the Renaissance are manipulated internally by the religious quarrels and externally by the impact of capitalism and the non-place settings in this play cannot offer a sense of identity and location for a self.
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Yang, Szuyun, and 楊思芸. "Law, Mercy, and Commodity-Fetish: Capitalistic Reification in The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 2001. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/93879431357204915970.
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碩士國立彰化師範大學
英語學系
89
The Merchant of Venice reflects a confrontation between bourgeois groups in Tudor England. The Jewish group, represented by Shylock, and its rival group, represented by the Christians, through law and religion struggle with each other over the dominance of economic power. This thesis aims to employ the Marxist perspective of "commodity-fetishism" and discuss how the law, religion, and human relations are reified in a capitalistic society. Chapter One begins with the capitalistic background in early modern England society, followed by definitions of theoretical concepts adopted in the thesis. Chapter Two introduces the legal system in Tudor England and discusses contemporary critics' views on the possible influence of the common law and equity on the play. Also probed into is the problem revealed from the two groups' interpretations on justice. Chapter Three investigates the Christian concept of mercy and discloses the main cause of the characters' ethnic and religious confrontation as well as the political significance of mercy and justice. Chapter Four focuses on how the reified value system influences the social relations of the characters, such as commodified father-daughter relations, love relations, and marriage relations. To conclude, the reality of struggles between groups of bourgeoisie is disclosed while the proletariats are ignored.
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吳靜芳. "Monetary Practice and Community-Making in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 2015. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23325132478693694704.
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碩士國立清華大學
外國語文學系
103
Abstract This thesis argues that the formation of community in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is based on economic exchange and examines how economic exchange entangles characters in legal, national and interpersonal relations. The Merchant of Venice dramatizes a confrontation between two religiously demarcated bourgeois groups in Venice, which in turn, allegorizes the changing socio-economic situation in Tudor England. This thesis aims to employ the economic and exchange perspectives and argues the formation of community in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is based on economic exchange and how human relations through exchange are reified in a nascent capitalistic society. This thesis contains two main chapters. Chapter One examines how the shift of wealth and social power--from possession of land to accumulation of money--had greatly impacted the social order, and given rise to anxiety between social classes. I take into account the historical context of a developing capitalist economy in early modern England--a context for which Shakespeare uses Venice as a foreign and substitute site to reflect on his contemporary England. Chapter Two argues that the formation of community in The Merchant of Venice is based on economic exchange. I draw on C. L. Barber's “The Merchant and the Jew of Venice: Wealth’s Communion and an Intruder” and W. H. Auden's "Brothers and Others" to examine how the formation of community is dictated by economic relations. I also examine how the characters enact and embody the economic conceptions in Tudor England and how the reified value system influences the social relations of the characters, such as commodified father/daughter relations, master/servant relations, love relations, and marriage relations.
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pangburn, elizabeth l. "The Merchant of Venice at UMASS: An Exploration in Collaboration and Representation." 2015. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/289.
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Through an analysis of the details of The Merchant of Venice, I will show that a costume design which only satisfies the basic role of articulating the relationships, status, time and place, etc of the play but has no point of view regarding that text’s inherent assumptions will always support, rather than subvert, any problematic issues present therein. Secondly, I will show that without tandem movement from the creative team, no rehabilitation or subversion is possible.