DOCSLIB.ORG

Shakespeare and Metatheatrical Representation

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Shakespeare and Metatheatrical Representation Shakespeare and Metatheatrical Representation Perry McPartland Shakespeare and Metatheatrical Representation Dissertation for the degree philosophiae doctor University of Agder Faculty of Foreign Languages and Translation 2020 Doctoral dissertations at the University of Agder 303 ISSN: 1504-9272 ISBN: 978-82-8427-005-0 Perry McPartland, 2020 Print: 07 Media, Kristiansand Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank the University of Agder for the financial and material support given to this project. Particular thanks must go to the staff of the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation for their expertise and generosity over the three years that I have been working on this dissertation. I must also express my gratitude for the research grant which enabled me to spend nine valuable months working at Det norske institut i Roma, and to also thank the staff there for their friendliness and professionalism. Enormous thanks must go to my supervisors. My original supervisor, Professor Roy Tommy Eriksen, passed away April 2019. He is very much missed. I benefited greatly from his model of academic dedication as well as from his gracious companionship. Subsequently, Professor Per Sivefors took on the role as my main supervisor, and Professor Oddvar Holmesland became my assistant supervisor. I am deeply indebted to both for the insight and support they have provided as well as for their camaraderie. Thanks must also go to Professor Stuart Sillars who supervised my MA thesis at Bergen University. His acumen and intellectual generosity set me on the path which has culminated in the present study, and I was fortunate enough to benefit from these qualities again when he acted as the opponent for my 90 percent seminar. I should also mention the contribution made by two other professors at the University of Agder, Charles Armstrong and Michael Prince, who, even though they were not directly involved in my project, offered me valuable feedback and encouragement. Thanks must also be extended to all the professors that I was fortunate to study under during my three years at Bergen University. A special debt of gratitude is owed to Professor Øyunn Hestetun, sadly no longer with us, whose energy and effortless generosity contributed in no small part in helping me make my original PhD application. In 2014 I was invited to join the Bergen-Volda Shakespeare Network, and the conferences that have been arranged over the years have been illuminating. My thanks go to all its members. I have benefitted enormously from the quality of the research that has been shared, and have been humbled by the welcome I received, as well as by the support that the group’s members have extended to my own academic efforts. Special thanks must go to Professor Charles Moseley and Associate Professor Svenn-Arve Myklebost for their feedback and friendship. Love and thanks go to my friends (Vincent Stephen deserves special mention for his thoughtful responses to a number of these articles) and to my English and Norwegian families. Anything that I might manage to accomplish owes a significant debt to all of you. Finally, and most importantly, a world of thanks to my wonderful wife, Maria Hjelmeland and my amazing children, Sean and Ivarna, without whom none of this would mean anything. Perry McPartland Kristiansand, June 25th 2020 Summary Forholdet mellom scenisk representasjon og metateater hos Shakespeare har tradisjonelt blitt oppfattet antagonistisk: publikum ses enten som fanget inn av scenens skinn av virkelighet, eller som fremmedgjort og skeptisk distansert fra den. Min forskning viser imidlertid at Shakespeares drama kun realiseres gjennom forfalskende effekter og posisjoner, men at det likevel ikke er noe motsetningsforhold mellom representasjon og metateater. Tvert imot suspenderes virkningen av hver enkelt modalitet; begge forblir i spill, og dramatikeren kan utnytte det generative potensialet som ligger i hver av dem. Kort sagt, representasjon og metateater flettes sammen som et overordnet kunstgrep. Dette er en risikabel estetisk strategi som på hvert trinn lett kan feile. Jeg analyserer hvordan Shakespeare lar motsetning, simulering og parodi virke sammen, og hevder at han med dette bidrar til å gi renessanseteatret en unik form for estetisk representasjon. vi Note on Publication The first two articles presented in this dissertation have already appeared in academic journals. “Holy Words and Low Folly in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was published in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, vol. 254, no. 1, 2017, pp. 48-66, and “Political Shakespeare and the Blessing of Art” appeared in EMCO, vol. 4, no.1, 2018, pp. 1-6. Minor corrections have been made to these two articles. A number of pieces that I have otherwise published have also found their way into the dissertation in one form or another, and these are noted below. The Introduction makes use of my article, “How to Paint the Plays”, published in EMCO, vol. 6, no. 1, 2015, pp. 31-40, and “Shakespeare, Art and Artifice: An Interview with Stuart Sillars”, published in EMCO, vol. 4, no. 2, 2019, pp. 1-31. It also references my “Titania and Bottom and a Vitruvian Fairy: A new reference to the work of Leonardo da Vinci in Henry Fuseli’s Titania and Bottom”, published in American Notes and Queries, December 2019, as well as my review of Shakespeare’s Pictures: Visual Objects in the Drama by Keir Elam, published in the Review of English Studies, vol. 70, no. 293, 2019, pp. 171-174. “Holy Words and Low Folly in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” references my “Transgendering Thisne”, published in American Notes and Queries, vol. 29, no. 3, 2016. “Green Plots, Hawthorn Brakes and an Ass’s Nole: Imaginative Translation in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” references my review of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Third Series (The Arden Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, published in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, vol. 255, no. 1, 2018. “‘Mocked with art’: Contradiction and Affect in The Winter’s Tale’s ‘Statue’ Scene’” makes use of my “‘Quit presently the chapel’; A note on setting in the final scene of The Winter’s Tale”, published in Notes and Queries, vol. 67, issue 2, June 2020. “‘Exit [Chuckling]’: Exposition, Role and Dissimulation in The Winter’s Tale” makes use of my “‘This seeming lady and her brother’: Further remarks on the doubling of Perdita with Mamillius in The Winter’s Tale”, published in Notes and Queries, vol. 67, no. 2, June 2020, and references my “References to the doubling of Autolycus and the bear in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale”, published in Notes and Queries, vol. 66, no. 3, September 2019, pp. 454-457. vii Contents Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………v Summary in Norwegian ………………………………………………………….vi Note on Publication …………………………………………………………….vii Introduction ………………………………………………………………………1 1 Metatheatrical representation ………………………………………....3 1.1 Preliminary definitions ………………………………………..3 1.2 Metatheatre’s relationship to representation …………………..6 1.3 Metatheatrical representation: a reading ………………………9 1.4 Methodology and analysis …………………………………...15 2 A critical framework ………………………………………….……...19 2.1 An economy of duality ……………………………..…….…..19 2.2 Dissimulation and mimesis: rhetoric, ekphrasis, copia ….…...24 2.3 Rhetoric ……………………….………………………….…..26 2.4 Ekphrasis ……………………………………………………..28 2.5 Copia …………………………………………………………34 2.6. A critical convergence ……………………………………….37 3 Metatheatrical representation and the model of estrangement: a survey of metatheatrical criticism ………………………...……39 3.1 The theatrical reference model of metatheatre ………….……39 3.2 Brecht’s model of estrangement ……………………….……..40 3.3 The impact of estrangement in the theatrical reference model ……………………………………………………..43 3.4 Metatheatre’s critical consolidation ………………………….45 3.5 Shakespeare’s ‘theatre of estrangement’ ……….…………….46 3.6 In response to the estrangement model ………………………53 4 The poetics of mimesis and the early modern theatre …………………59 4.1 Mimesis in the early modern era ………………………….….59 4.2 Representation’s rhetoricality: the poetics of mimesis and estrangement ………………………………………….65 4.3 Mimesis and estrangement redeployed ………………………69 5 Towards an outline of Shakespeare’s metatheatrical representation …73 5.1 ‘A willing suspension of disbelief’ reexamined and reapplied ………………………………………………….73 5.2 A representational register ……………………………………74 viii 5.3 An outline of Shakespeare’s metatheatrical representation …..77 Articles ……………………………………………………………...…………..83 Introduction to the articles ………...……………………………………..85 Holy Words and Low Folly in A Midsummer Night’s Dream ……….…...91 Political Shakespeare and the Blessing of Art: A Midsummer Night’s Dream ……………………………...…………………………...111 Green Plots, Hawthorn Brakes and an Ass’s Nole: Imaginative Translation in A Midsummer Night’s Dream ……………………….………..121 Dissimulation and the Dover Cliff: Metatheatrical Dissimulation in King Lear …………….………………………………………....137 ‘Mocked with art’: Contradiction and Affect in The Winter’s Tale’s ‘Statue’ Scene’ ………………………………………………….161 ‘Exit [Chuckling]’: Exposition, Role and Dissimulation in The Winter’s Tale ………………………………………….……185 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………209 ix List of figures 1. The decollation of John the Baptist from Reginald Scott’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft ………………………………………………………………..180 x Introduction 1 1. Metatheatrical representation 1.1 Preliminary definitions If this discussion of Shakespeare’s drama is to concentrate on what I have termed ‘metatheatrical
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 38 Eve Wersocki Morris, Q33606, Pp. 359-67
    ‘He had a Horse Called Bill’ (Yellow Sky): The Appropriation of Shakespeare in the Western. Eve Wersocki Morris Studying film from the perspective of genre theory requires analysis of cinematic techniques and contextual culture (filmic and social). Christine Gledhill claims that genre provides ‘a framework of structuring rules […] which act as a form of ‘supervision’ over the work of film-makers and the work of reading by an audience’.1 This definition indicates that each genre adheres to a fixed hierarchal form. Alternatively, Anthony Easthope argues that genre should be understood as an abstract, theoretical structure, which is transformed by each new production so ‘any instance of a genre will be necessarily different’.2 Easthope implies that the ‘structuring rules’ are not fixed but allow filmmakers ideological concerns and social and cultural environments to influence their individual films and aid in developing the genre framework itself. My essay shall adhere to this latter argument. In agreement with Easthope, Mary Bandy and Kevin Stoehr have argued that, post- World War Two, the Western experienced a ‘gradual transformation of genre’3 towards more ‘psychologically expressive Westerns’4 which was due to the public’s desire for darker subject matter. Alan Lovell specifies that these new Westerns did not alter the genre but simply imposed ‘a new sensibility on the old forms’,5 retaining the classic wild west scenery of the 19th Century American frontier. Andre Bazin has called these new Westerns ‘superwesterns’6 and Lovell refers to them as ‘adult westerns’.7 However, for the purposes of this essay, I shall be adopting Bandy’s term ‘psychological western’ because of its explicit allusions to the increased interest in exploring characters’ inner struggles.
    [Show full text]
  • Actes Des Congrès De La Société Française Shakespeare
    Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare 38 | 2020 Shakespeare et le monde animal Hybrid Creatures in Context: Centaurs, Hobby- horses and Sexualised Women (Hamlet, King Lear, The Two Noble Kinsmen) Natália Pikli Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/shakespeare/5055 DOI: 10.4000/shakespeare.5055 ISSN: 2271-6424 Publisher Société Française Shakespeare Electronic reference Natália Pikli, « Hybrid Creatures in Context: Centaurs, Hobby-horses and Sexualised Women (Hamlet, King Lear, The Two Noble Kinsmen) », Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare [Online], 38 | 2020, Online since 10 January 2020, connection on 21 July 2020. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/shakespeare/5055 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/shakespeare.5055 This text was automatically generated on 21 July 2020. © SFS Hybrid Creatures in Context: Centaurs, Hobby-horses and Sexualised Women (Ham... 1 Hybrid Creatures in Context: Centaurs, Hobby-horses and Sexualised Women (Hamlet, King Lear, The Two Noble Kinsmen) Natália Pikli 1 “Think when we talk of horses, that you see them”, says the Chorus in Henry V, 1 alluding to the fact that Shakespeare’s and his contemporaries’ works teem with horses the audience had to imagine, since bringing a live horse onto the stage was rarely a viable option. Besides the war horses of historical battles, early modern playtexts featured other horses or horse-like creatures, belonging to different cultural discourses. Besides the “elite” centaur of humanist education, the hobby-horse of the morris dance, the wickerwork costume of the dancing, prancing, lascivious and merry character (Figure 1) enjoyed heightened popularity in the decades between 1580 and 1642, appearing in numerous texts of different status,2 being the most remembered when it was so famously “forgotten” (cf.
    [Show full text]
  • Conscience As a Phenomenon in Shakespeare's Richard III And
    Conscience as a Phenomenon in Shakespeare’s Richard III and Macbeth Olav Rian A Thesis Presented to the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, the University of Oslo in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Master’s Degree Autumn Term 2005 Advisor: Juan Christian Pellicer Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Juan Christian Pellicer who, with his enthusiasm and interest in Shakespeare, has encouraged me and put me back on track many times during this process. Thank you for your patience. I would also like to thank Domhnall Mitchell, Jeremy Hawthorne and the other staff members at the English department at NTNU, who first got me interested in literature studies and Shakespeare studies. Many thanks go to Charles Moseley, Eugene Giddens and all lecturers and staff members at the Shakespeare Summer School programme at Cambridge University. Thank you for an inspiring course, and for sharing your wisdom and experience. I would also like to thank Erik Karlsaune, lecturer in comparative religion and sociology at NTNU, who was under no obligation to help me and comment on my theories, but did so anyway. Muchas gracias to Dag Flem Mæland, Dagfinn Karlsen and Sølve Sjeg, my good friends. Without your wonderful example of actually finishing your theses I doubt I would have been able to finish this one. Thank you, Dagfinn, for valuable close reading. I would also like to thank Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, who have been a great inspiration in my work, haunting my sleep and prolonging my days. May they rest in peace, and may God have mercy on their dark souls.
    [Show full text]
  • Cline Family and Beyond
    The Family Volume II Appendices ii Contents Volume 11 Appendix A - Ancient Branches, 1 Britons, Franks, Hebrews, Scandinavian, Scythian, Sicambrian Appendix B - Direct Ancestral Links to the Ancient Past, 19 Norman-English, Celtic-French, Anglo-Saxon, Mayflower, Hohenstauffen-English, Hebrew Appendix C - Virginia Ligons, 51 Documents, Extended Families, “From Jackson to Vicksburg 1861-1865 - Memories of the War Between the States” Appendix D - Scottish Clan Connections, 85 Member Clans of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs: Bruce, Campbell, Drummond, Dunbar, Gordon, Graham, Hamilton, Hanna, Hay, Home, Keith, Ker, Leslie, Lindsay, Lyon, MacDonald, Montgomery, Murray, Ross,, Scott, Sempill, Sinclair, Stuart of Bute, Sutherland, Wallace. The Armigerous Clans and Families of Sc otland: Armstrong, Baillie, Douglas, Fleming, Hepburn, Livingston, Lundin, Muir, Seton, Somerville, Stewart (Royal), Stewart of Appin, Stewart of Atholl. Other Clan/Sept Connec tions: Angus, Barclay, Galloway, Haye, Knights Templar (Dress/Huntimg), Roslyn Chaple, Royal Stewart Appendix E - Magna Charta Barons, 131 The Baronage of the Magna Charta & Biographies: William d’Albini (Aubigny), Roger Bigod, Hugh Bigod, Henry de Bohun, Richard de Clare, Gilbert de Clare, John FitzRobert, Robert FitzWalter, William de Fortibus, William de Hardell (Mayor of London), William de Huntingfield, William de Lanvallei, John de Lacie, William Malet, Geoffrey de Mandeville, William Marshall Jr., Roger de Montbegon, Richard de Montifichet, Roger de Mobray, William de Mowbray, Saire
    [Show full text]
  • The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Last Plays
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-88178-4 - The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s Last Plays Edited by Catherine M. S. Alexander Frontmatter More information the cambridge companion to shakespeare’s last plays Which plays are included under the heading ‘Shakespeare’s last plays’, and when does Shakespeare’s ‘last’ period begin? What is meant by a ‘late play’, and what are the benefits in defining plays in this way? Reflecting the recent growth of interest in late studies, and recognising the gaps in accessible scholarship in this area, leading international Shakespeare scholars address these and many other questions. The essays locate Shakespeare’s last plays – single and co-authored – in the period of their composition, consider the significant characteristics of their Jacobean context, and explore the rich afterlives, on stage, in print and other media of The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII. The volume opens with a historical timeline that places the plays in the contexts of contemporary political events, theatrical events, other cultural milestones, Shakespeare’s life and that of his playing company, the King’s Men. catherine m. s. alexander is a Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. A complete list of books in the series is at the back of this book © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-88178-4 - The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s Last Plays Edited by Catherine M. S. Alexander Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO SHAKESPEARE’S LAST PLAYS EDITED BY CATHERINE M.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Last Plays
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-70819-7 - The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s Last Plays Edited by Catherine M. S. Alexander Frontmatter More information the cambridge companion to shakespeare’s last plays Which plays are included under the heading ‘Shakespeare’s last plays’, and when does Shakespeare’s ‘last’ period begin? What is meant by a ‘late play’, and what are the benefits in defining plays in this way? Reflecting the recent growth of interest in late studies, and recognising the gaps in accessible scholarship in this area, leading international Shakespeare scholars address these and many other questions. The essays locate Shakespeare’s last plays – single and co-authored – in the period of their composition, consider the significant characteristics of their Jacobean context, and explore the rich afterlives, on stage, in print and other media of The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII. The volume opens with a historical timeline that places the plays in the contexts of contemporary political events, theatrical events, other cultural milestones, Shakespeare’s life and that of his playing company, the King’s Men. catherine m. s. alexander is a Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. A complete list of books in the series is at the back of this book © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-70819-7 - The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s Last Plays Edited by Catherine M. S. Alexander Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO SHAKESPEARE’S LAST PLAYS EDITED BY CATHERINE M.
    [Show full text]
  • An Annotated Bibliography of Publications Since 1800
    Mechanical Watches An Annotated Bibliography of publications since 1800 by Richard Watkins Second Edition Part 1 - Bibliography © Copyright, 2004, 2011, Richard Watkins Published in 2011 by Richard Watkins, Tasmania, Australia. Other translations, transcripts and books by Richard Watkins: Berner, G.A. and E. Audetat: Pierre Frederic Ingold 1787-1878, (1962) 2008 Berthoud, Ferdinand and Jacob Auch: How to make a verge watch, (1763 and 1827) 2005 (ISBN 0-9581369-6-3) (with E.J. Tyler) Borsendorff, L.: The history of a watch followed by a conversation on the horology industry between Mr Trottevite and Mr Vabien, (1869) 2007 (ISBN 978-0-9581369-9-0) Buffat, Eugene: History and design of the Roskopf watch, (1914) 2007 Camus, C.E.L. and J.I. Hawkins: A treatise on the Teeth of Wheels, (1837) 2007 (corrected version of the Google Book copy) Crespe, François: Essay on repeater watches, (1804) 2006 (ISBN 978-0-9581369-8-3) David, Jacques: American and swiss watchmaking in 1876, reports to the International Committee of Jura Industries on the manufacture of watches in the United States, (1877) 2003 (ISBN 0-9581369-2-0) Favre-Perret, E.: Philadelphia Exhibition 1876, report presented to the Federal High Council on the Horology Industry, (1877) 2004 Francillon, André: History of Longines preceded by an essay on the Agassiz comptoir, (1947) 2005 (ISBN 0-9581369-7-1) Graupmann, Emile: The finishing of the watch case, (1910) 2004 Grossmann, Moritz: Prize essay on the construction of a simple and mechanically perfect watch, (1880) 2002 (ISBN 0-9581369-0-4)
    [Show full text]