Politics of English Drama, 1603-1660
Staging Republic and Empire: Politics of English Drama, 1603-1660 by Judy Hyo Jung Park This thesis/dissertation document has been electronically approved by the following individuals: Cohen,Walter Isaac (Chairperson) Kalas,Rayna M (Minor Member) Lorenz,Philip A (Minor Member) Brown,Laura Schaefer (Minor Member) Murray,Timothy Conway (Minor Member) STAGING REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE: POLITICS OF ENGLISH DRAMA, 1603-1660 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Judy Hyo Jung Park August 2010 © 2010 Judy Hyo Jung Park STAGING REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE: POLITICS OF ENGLISH DRAMA, 1603-1660 Judy Hyo Jung Park, Ph.D. Cornell University 2010 This study argues that the classical legal concepts of dominium and imperium, ownership and rule, illuminate the political tensions of seventeenth century English drama. The concept of imperium was central to seventeenth century debates over the terms of international commerce, setting important precedents for the development of modern international law. Geopolitical disputes over dominium and imperium shadow the developing conflict between republican, monarchical, and imperial models of the English state from the Stuart monarchy to the post-revolutionary English republic. In the drama of the early to mid-seventeenth century, we can trace the emergence of designs for an imperial English state well before the Restoration and the eighteenth century. Moving from the reign of James I to the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, this study reevaluates the genres of tragicomedy, closet drama, topical drama, and operatic masques, analyzing Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’s Philaster and A King and No King, Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam, Philip Massinger and John Fletcher’s The Tragedy of Sir John van Olden Barnavelt, and William Davenant’s The Siege of Rhodes.
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