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The Social, Historical, and Theatrical Significance of the Child on Stage

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The Social, Historical, and Theatrical Significance of the Child on Stage REPRESENTING CHILDHOOD: THE SOCIAL, HISTORICAL, AND THEATRICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHILD ON STAGE Patrick M. Konesko A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2013 Committee: Jonathan Chambers, Ph.D., Advisor Arthur N. Samel, Ph.D. Graduate Faculty Representative Scott Magelssen, Ph.D. Ronald Shields, Ph.D. © 2013 Patrick M. Konesko All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jonathan Chambers, Advisor In this dissertation I explore the social, historical, and theatrical significance of dramatic representations of childhood. In three case studies, one each on childhood in the Early Modern, Modern, and Contemporary periods, I focus on the relationship between larger social, industrial, and philosophical changes, real-world childhood(s), and dramatic representations of those childhoods in playscripts of the time. At each of the moments highlighted, childhood, and the forces that work to shape it, exist at a moment of crisis. These moments are characterized by the convergence of a variety of narratives of childhood ranging from the established to the emergent and, as such, make space for historically significant representations. Childhood is not a natural, nor even strictly biological concept. In fact, childhood is a concept that is changed to suit the needs of a given historical context. More specifically, childhood is made up of a series of discourses influenced by shifts in industry, religion, philosophy, and technology, as well as by the changing needs of adults in response to these forces. From being a valuable source of labor and/or income to objects of sentimentality, Western childhood is engaged in a perpetual process of revision. In each my case studies, which are focused on the work of William Shakespeare, Maurice Maeterlinck, and Martin McDonagh, I explore the ways in which each playwright draws on contemporary social tensions to create child characters that are uniquely situated as sites in which historical tensions are negotiated. Ultimately, by iv drawing on the organizing metaphor of the blank page that is central to each of history, childhood, and representation, I frame the represented child as the “playscript” of Western society. v Dedicated to Alyssa vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I cannot take complete credit for this dissertation. While any failures that it contains are undoubtedly mine, its successes are certainly a product of all of the incredible support, mentorship, and friendship that I have been given over the last four years. First and foremost, I must thank my wife, Alyssa. Though these words are inadequate in expressing the full extent of my gratitude to her, I am confident that I would not have finished this dissertation without her support. She met all of my lowest points with tireless enthusiasm, encouragement, and love. I must also thank her for all of the treats and pots of coffee, as well as all of the times that she took on extra housework so that I could focus on writing. Thank you also to my parents Micheal and Laura, and to my brother, William, for their understanding and good humor throughout this experience. I must also thank the members of my doctoral committee—Scott Magelssen, Arthur Samel, and Ronald Shields—for their willingness to read and engage with my work over the last four years. Their questions and critique have contributed immensely to this document and to the quality of my research overall. To my dissertation advisor, Jonathan Chambers, my thanks for your guidance, mentorship, and patience. Your calm pragmatism has quieted my nerves throughout this program and this process. My thanks as well to the faculty, staff, and graduate student community in the Bowling Green Department of Theatre and Film. While everyone in this family has offered support, the contribution of several individuals merits specific mention. My thanks to Heidi Nees for blazing a trail through the dissertation process. Your experiences and advice have helped a great deal. I must also thank Quincy Thomas, Miriam Hahn, vii Sara Chambers, Slade Billew, Angenette Stacer Spalink and Daniel Spalink for their support, humor, and, most importantly, the commiseration and hugs freely offered by each of them. Furthermore, each of these individuals was always there when my research was in need of inspiration and/or reality checks. Thank you. My gratitude also to the professor who first encouraged me to go to graduate school, Janet Rubin. She took me under her wing and got me excited about all of the wonderful things that a life in academia had to offer (though she failed to mention all of the low-points that come with the dissertation process). Finally, my thanks to Mathew Easterwood who, throughout my graduate career, even when he was in Romania with the Peace Corps, has supported and challenged my work. That, and his timely contribution of ţuică, have been imperative to my success. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION: THE MARGINALIZED CHILD IN THEATRE HISTORY ................ 1 CHAPTER I: CHANGING CHILDHOOD: MAJOR SHIFTS IN CONSTRUCTIONS OF CHILDHOOD FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT DAY ............. 27 CHAPTER II: SHAKESPEARE AND THE CURRIED CHILD ........................................ 67 CHAPTER III: THE ABJECT AND LATENT CHILD IN MAETERLINCK’S STATIC DRAMA …………...... .......................................................................................................... 99 CHAPTER IV: MCDONAGH AND THE DIGITAL CHILD............................................. 130 CONCLUSION: THE PLAYSCRIPT OF WESTERN HISTORY...................................... 169 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 178 1 INTRODUCTION: THE MARGINALIZED CHILD IN THEATRE HISTORY “A theatre, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance.” Dario Fo, Nobel Lecture (1997) A playscript, like all works of art, is not solely a creative endeavor. Working in conjunction with the artistry and craftsmanship of the artist is the influence of context and history. Even beyond the intentionality suggested by Dario Fo in the above quote, a playscript cannot be separated from its context: it, and those creating it, are, and continue to be, forged by the crucible of history. While this might seem obvious, particularly to scholars working under such influences as Neo-Marxism, Feminism, Post-Structuralism, and New Historicism, it bears mentioning alongside Fo’s quote for the subjectivity implied by his phrasing. Relevance, after all, is a question of perspective. Even with the strides recently made in bringing attention to ideas and peoples long marginalized in theatre scholarship, child characters are still often deemed irrelevant objects of study. The acts of iconic figures such as Oedipus, Medea, Othello, and Miss Julie, are considered more culturally revealing than those characters who oftentimes do not even have lines and who, throughout Western History, are generally positioned as lesser. In buying into the perceived insignificance of children, however, scholars run the risk of silencing a vast group of characters, many of whom have significant contributions to offer to our interpretations of dramas, and to our understanding of theatre production and history. While scholars working in the social sciences have long given attention to what the changing nature of childhood can say about Western society, they are similarly guilty of dismissing a valuable resource: representation. Though the connection between representation 2 and society may seem obvious, scholars working in the social sciences have been somewhat reticent to explore it, in part because of Philippe Ariès controversial work, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (1962). In this landmark study, Ariès offered constructions of medieval children based largely on their representation in art. As recent criticism of that work has pointed out, Ariès’ approach was limited in that it relied almost exclusively on these representations while discounting significant contextual sources. In what might be considered a response to Ariès, contemporary social scientists studying constructions of childhood have moved away from artistic representation as viable source material on the subject position of the child, focusing instead on more concrete social shifts working at the macrocosmic level, including changes in industry, government, religion, and so on. While these scholars still reference artistic representation occasionally, particularly in terms of the Romantic poets’ influence on child rearing in the nineteenth century, they have largely downplayed or ignored the portrayal of children in art. In response to these exclusions, in this study I forward the notion that child characters are reliable and culturally revealing sources, who are capable of speaking in ways that theatre and social science scholars have yet to appreciate. In doing so, I engage in a historiographical approach inspired by Michel de Certeau’s framing of historical inquiry in terms of absence and subjectivity. Inasmuch as both theatre and child, as concepts, are founded on principles informed by the organizing metaphor of the blank page, both can be defined as de Certeau’s theoretical void of history; they are shaped by historical discourses and silenced by the subjective writing of the author(s). Drawing on these similarities, I will use the case studies in the chapters
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