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Shakespeare's Clown

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Shakespeare's Clown Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bölcsészettudományi kar DOKTORI DISSZERTÁCIÓ Bársony Márton Shakespeare’s clown The Decarnivalization of the World in Three of His Dramas Irodalomtudományi Doktori Iskola Dr. Lukács István, egyetemi tanár Összehasonlító irodalomtudomány doktori program Dr. Szegedy-Maszák Mihály akadémikus, professor emeritus A bizottság tagjai: Elnök: Dr. Dávidházi Péter, DSC, akadémikus, egyetemi tanár Opponensek: Dr. Radnóti Sándor, MTA doktora, egyetemi tanár Dr. Fabiny Tibor, PhD, egyetemi tanár, KGE Tagok és póttagok: Dr. Zsadányi Edit, PhD, habilitált egyetemi docens Dr. Bezeczky Gábor, tudományos főmunkatárs, MTA Dr. Kálmán C. György, CsC, MTA Irodalomtudományi Intézet, tudományos főmunkatárs Dr. Gellért Marcell, PhD, docens Titkár: Dr. Molnár Gábor Tamás, PhD, adjunktus Témavezetők: 2014.1.9 – Dr. Kállay Géza, PhD, egyetemi tanár 2011.9.1-2014.1.9. Dr. Szegedy-Maszák Mihály, akadémikus, professor emeritus Budapest, 2016. As concerns carnival. I didn’t have in mind carnival as something cheerful. Not at all! In every carnival image there’s the presence of death. Speaking with your terminology – carnival is tragedy. Its only that here, tragedy is not the final word. Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin1 1 Bakhtin’s Defense. Excerpts from Comrade Bakhtin’s Defense of the Dissertation “Rabelais in the History of Realism” at the Gorky Institute of World Literature in Moscow, 15 November 1946. (adapted by Lars Kleberg, translated by Denis Zherknokleyev and Caryl Emerson) Limited Conference Edition. 15th International Bakhtin Conference, Stockholm, 2014 2 Table of Contents Introducing the Methodology In Search of an “Enigmatic Truth Hidden” Nowhere. ....................... 5 1. “Popular Culture” ......................................................................................................................... 17 The Meaning of “Popular” ................................................................................................................. 17 Festivities ........................................................................................................................................... 22 How Theater is “Popular” .................................................................................................................. 29 Early Attacks ...................................................................................................................................... 30 Shakespeare and the “Popular Culture” ........................................................................................... 33 2. The Medium of Carnival .............................................................................................................. 40 “Thou com’st in such a questionable shape” .................................................................................... 41 “Social-functional” fool categories ................................................................................................ 43 “Naturals” and/or “Artificials” ....................................................................................................... 48 Rustic clown and/or Professional Fool .......................................................................................... 50 The Clown or Fool par excellence ..................................................................................................... 53 His Liminality ................................................................................................................................. 55 As Homo Sacer ............................................................................................................................... 60 As Transgressor ............................................................................................................................. 62 Crushing the Fourth Wall............................................................................................................... 64 His Contra-behavior ....................................................................................................................... 65 Provoking Festive Laughter ........................................................................................................... 66 Always Returning ........................................................................................................................... 68 Making Him Apophatic .................................................................................................................. 71 Both the Whiteface and the August .............................................................................................. 76 3. King Lear: Deconstructing Folly ................................................................................................. 79 “The worst returns to laughter”? ...................................................................................................... 83 The Stephening Lear .......................................................................................................................... 85 “This great stage of fools” ................................................................................................................. 90 The Fool and the Wisdom of Folly ................................................................................................. 91 Kent/Caius, the Brawler “Knave” of Carnival ................................................................................ 98 Tom O’Bedlam/Edgar .................................................................................................................. 105 Lear as the clown or fool par excellence ...................................................................................... 112 The Hoax of the “promised end” ..................................................................................................... 122 4. Twelfth Night: “Take the Fool away” ........................................................................................ 129 3 Recognizing Twelfth Night as a Carnivalesque Play ........................................................................ 131 Twelfth night or what you will? ................................................................................................... 134 Mock Battles between Augusts and Whitefaces ............................................................................. 137 The First Rejection of Fe(a)st(e) .................................................................................................. 140 An Attempt to Mute the Carnival ................................................................................................ 144 The Deaf Orsino ........................................................................................................................... 149 Augusts among Themselves ........................................................................................................ 153 Malvolio, the Clown ..................................................................................................................... 155 The Mock Ritual ........................................................................................................................... 162 The Daggers of Iath ..................................................................................................................... 165 Feste’s Last Song ......................................................................................................................... 170 The myth of the “too much harm” .................................................................................................. 171 5. Hamlet – “the rest is silence” ..................................................................................................... 178 Struggling with Hamlet’s Carnivalism? ............................................................................................ 178 Claudius, “a Vice of kings” ........................................................................................................... 182 The “Antic Disposition” ............................................................................................................... 186 The “Doubleness” Tradition ............................................................................................................ 194 The Gravedigging Scene .................................................................................................................. 199 History and Inspiration ................................................................................................................ 202 Role of the Clowns in the Gravedigging Scene ............................................................................ 205 Yorick ........................................................................................................................................... 212 “What dreams may come?” ............................................................................................................ 221 The Decarnivalization of the World ............................................................................................. 226 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 233 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................... 244 Primary Sources ..........................................................................................................................
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