Connotations 8.1 (1998/99)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Connotations A Journal for Critical Debate Volume 8 (1998/99) Number 1 Waxmann Munster/New York Editor' s Note When it is my turn to say farewell to one member of the Editorial Board and bid welcome to another at the same time, the association that, willy nilly, comes first, is Ulysses' portrayal of Time, the "fashionable host I That slightly shakes the parting guest by th'hand, I And with his arms out-stretch'd, as he would fly, I Grasps in the comer." What a cynicism, and what an outcry for sincerity. Professor Alastair Fowler tells us that, because of urgent scholarly work, he wishes to resign from our Editorial Board. Though we regret this very much we cannot but accept it, thanking Professor Fowler sincerely for having honoured us with his support and whishing him all the best for the future. Our new member on the Editoral Board is Professor Leona Toker of the Hebrew University Jerusalem. Having worked together for some years now in the most congenial manner, we are very happy and grateful that she has accepted our invitation. lnge Leimberg Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate Published by Connotations: Society for Critical Debate EDITORS Inge Leimberg, Lothar Cerny, Michael Steppat, Matthias Bauer, Christiane Lang-Graumann Managing Director: Dieter Kranz Editorial Assistant: Susanne Eilks EDITORIAL ADDRESS Westfiilische Wilhelms-Universitat, Department of English Johannisstr. 12-20, D-48143 Munster, Germany Fax: +49 (251) 8324827; Email: [email protected] WWW homepage: http://anglisti.uni-muenster.de/ connotations EDITORIAL BOARD M. H. Abrams, Cornell University John Russell Brown, Middlesex University Paul Budra, Simon Fraser University Eleanor Cook, University of Toronto Elizabeth Story Donno, The Huntington Library Judith Dundas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign William E. Engel, Harvard University Alastair Fowler, University of Edinburgh A. C. Hamilton, Queen's University, Ontario John P. Hermann, University of Alabama John Hollander, Yale University Lothar Honnighausen, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn Arthur F. Kinney, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Maynard Mack, Yale University Frances M. Malpezzi, Arkansas State University J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine Dale B. J. Randall, Duke University Alan Rudrum, Simon Fraser University John M. Steadman, The Huntington Library Zdenek Stfibrny, Charles University, Prague Leona Toker, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Joseph Wiesenfarth, University of Wisconsin-Madison Waxmann Munster INew York Connotations wants to encourage scholarly communication in the field of English Literature (from the Middle English period to the present), as well as American and other Literatures in English. It focuses on the semantic and stylistic energy of the language of literature in a historical perspective and aims to represent different approaches. Each issue consists of articles and a forum for discussion. The forum presents, for instance, research in progress, critical hypotheses, responses to articles published in Connotations and elsewhere, as well as to recent books. Contributions will be published within five months after submission so that discussion can begin without delay. Articles and responses should be forwarded to the editors. As a rule, articles should not exceed 12,000 words and follow the MLA Handbook. Responses should be limited to 4,000 words. If possible, all contributions should be submitted bye-mail or on diskette (preferably in WordPerfect or Word for DOS/Windows), accompanied by a hard copy; they should be in English and must be proofread before submission. Manuscripts and disks will not be returned. Connotations is published three times a year. Private subscribers are welcome to join the Connotations Society for Critical Debate. Members receive the journal as well as invitations to the Connotations symposia. The suggested annual fee is DM 80 (EUR 40, $ 45; OM 40 for students). Please write to: Connotations, Department of English, Westfiilische Wilhelms-Universitat, 48143 Munster, Germany. Emai1: connotations@ uni-muenster.de. Libraries and other institutional subcribers write to: Waxmann Verlag, Steinfurter Str. 555, 48159 Munster, Germany; or: Waxmann Publishing Co., P.O. Box 1318, New York, NY 10028, U.S.A. Emai1: connotations@ waxmann.com. Annual subscriptions are in Europe OM 75 / EUR 39, in the U.S. and all other countries $ 60, including postage. A selection of articles and responses is freely available on the internet (http://anglisti.uni-muenster.de/ connotations). © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, Munster/New York 1999 All Rights Reserved Printed in Germany ISSN 0939-5482 COllllotations is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. Contributions are indexed, for example, in the MLA Bibliography, the World Shah'Spenre Bibliography and the IBZ/IBR. )f 1S Connotations le A Journal for Critical Debate al Volume 8 (1998/99) Number 1 n ~s 1t ~r ARTICLES ld Je The Madness of George III: lil Shakespeare, the History Play and Alan Bennett ~d n. BRIAN GIBBONS 1 ~e ,s A Place Revisited (Ill) a. ). A Pattern of the Mind: le The Country House Poem Revisited @ JUDITH DUNDAS 22 ,. Gerard Manley Hopkins Revisiting Binsey :>' g CHRISTIANE LANG-GRAUMANN 48 @ n The Place Revisited in T. S. Eliot's FOllr Quartets INGE LEIMBERG 63 "But the names remain": Dylan Thomas's Return Journey MATIHIAS BAVER 93 Gary Snyder, D6gen, and 'The Canyon Wren" JOHN WHALEN-BRIDGE 112 DISCUSSION Who was the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnet 86? ERIC SAMS 127 Surrender Dorothy: A Reply to Leona Toker JAMES SOOERHOLM 134 Response to Bernd Engler's "Recollections of Home in Joyce Carol Oates's 'By the River'" DANIEL F. HURLEY 136 Re-representing African Identity: A Response DEREK WRIGHT 146 Connotations Vol. 8.1 (1998/99) ~7 The Madness of George 111: Shakespeare, the History Play and Alan Bennett BRIAN GIBBONS In 1961 Alan Bennett, one of the four performers of the revue Beyond the ~6 Fringe, claimed in the programme to be writing a thesis on the retinue of Richard n. Given the parodic-satiric nature of the show, one assumed this was a joke, but while "The Retinue of Richard I1, 1388-1399" strikes one l6 as perfectly parodied academic style it also really was Bennett's Oxford thesis, and a source of sharp anxiety to him in 1961. The next year he gave up the idea of being a professional historian when the show transferred to Broadway; but history, and Bennett's failure to give it up, remain important factors about this writer. Today, unlike other National Theatre playwrights such as David Hare or Tom Stoppard, Bennett also has a successful career as a performer, especially as a reader of children's books, for which he has a large affectionate public, and then there is his diary, a best-seller under the title Writing Home. Through television he has a popular image as self deprecatory, ordinary, always garbed in tweed jacket, tie and v-necked pullover. This persona contains elements of self-parody and presumably is a useful mask; certainly it scarcely prepares one for the serious intelligence and often desolate, lonely imagination which lies at the heart of his work, in characters either "perfectly ordinary"-as in Talking Heads-or very much the reverse-as with Single Spies and The Madness of George Ill. The air of naturalistic indirection on the surface of dialogue and action, with word-play, jokes and minor absurdities, gives a subtlety which may disguise the underlying clarity and solidity of design and dramatic structure. Not surprisingly however, in a cultural climate such as today's, the dramatist whose moral intelligence is subtle, but also very definite, risks being not understood, not just misunderstood. This essay sets out a case for taking Bennett seriously as an imaginative artist, and _______________ For debates inspired by this article, please check the Connotations website at <http://www.connotations.de/debgibbons00801.htm>. 2 BRIAN GIBBONS it does so by considering Bennett's use of other playwrights' work: his critical-as well as his creative-intelligence. In The Madness of George III Bennett is dealing with English nationhood, no less, with national and with private integrity. Forty Years On, Bennett's first independent play (which features everything one tries to forget about school) was, however hilariously, historical in subject as well as somewhat Brechtian in mode, and Bennett's preoccupation with history is also clear inA Day Out, which has World War I in the background. In 1988 Bennett's emphasis became much more explicit in A Question of Attribution (subsequently filmed for TV) about Sir Anthony Blunt, Keeper of the Queen's Pictures, homosexual, secret agent, traitor; a play which also features the reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth 11. Bennett's portrait of the Queen is striking, by comparison with Shakespearean monarchs, for its humorous detail. At the same time there is a distinct, chill element about this monarch, and Blunt (who perhaps may be a hero) endures persecution which would appear more blankly cruel and hypocritical were it not so understated-so British-in style. We should note that the author's preface to the published playscript discusses patriotism and national decline. The Madness of George III focuses on the English monarchy at a point mid way on its long downhill road from Queen Elizabeth I to King Charles Ill, and it looks in both directions: it offers an oblique perspective on the United Kingdom and its monarchy today, using the filter of Hanoverian culture, and it has a short, unexpected time-shift in which a twentieth century doctor explains the modem medical diagnosis of the King's illness as porphyria. It is also full of Shakespearean allusions and echoes. Bennett's play therefore invites recognition of parallels between the reigns of Shakespearean kings, Georgian Britain, and the present day United Kingdom. It shows King George Ill's Court as dull and stuffy, a mere prosaic residue of former grandeur-but goes on to show that however dull, a court will also generate real oppression.