The Social Instability and Spatialities in Thomas Dekker's and Thomas

國立中山大學外國語文學系碩士論文 Department of Foreign Languages and Literature National Sun Yat-sen University Master Thesis 論湯瑪士‧戴可與湯瑪士‧米德頓之詹姆士王時期城市喜劇中的社會動盪及空間感 The Social Instability and Spatialities in Thomas Dekker’s and Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean City Comedies 研究生：林柏豪 Po-Hao Lin 指導教授：李祁芳博士 Dr. Chi-fang Sophia Li 中華民國 107 年 1 月 January 2018 學位論文審定書 i Acknowledgements The thesis could not have been completed without the intellectual advice and spiritual support from many important ones. Thanks could never be said enough, but there are people that I particularly want to address my greatest gratitude to by this opportunity. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Chi fang Sophia Li, for her insightful advice and motivational encouragements. I could always remember the afternoon when she agreed to become my advisor without hesitation. Dr. Li is a scholar that I look up to and a role model for me to follow. In my writing process, she would patiently go through every single line and paragraph to ensure that I was on the right track. Her intellectual suggestions always help me be more accurate in thinking and finish my chapters step by step. It is such an honor and pleasure to be her advisee. Meanwhile, I would also like to thank all the teachers who once instructed me in the DFLL in the past few years. I have incurred my debts of gratitude in their constant inspirations to me. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Difeng Chueh, who is not only a teacher but also a friend. His positive life attitude always reminds me of being optimistic and fearless. He shall receive the most gratitude from me. Thirdly, I would like to pay the most tribute to my parents and sister, who always offer me the unrequited care and support in the long journey of becoming a scholar. Life is hard, but with them, it becomes whole and sweet. Without their heartfelt support, I could never have reached the finishing line. It goes without saying that “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” There are friends whom I undoubtedly owe to. Their warmth and caring words can always pull me back from frustration and boost my confidence to face the upcoming challenges. I shall give my thanks to them for being the indispensable and helpful part in my life. Last but not least, I am indebted to DFLL and NSYSU for giving me admission four years ago. I feel fortunate because studying here not only enriches my knowledge but also broadens my horizons. Moreover, I would like to pay my gratitude to the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education for offering me the handsome funding to work as a Research and Teaching Assistant. This way, I can simultaneously devote myself to the academe, and focus more on my thesis. With the supports mentioned above, I can finally tackle the journey filled with challenges and prove myself in the end that I am far more capable than I expected. ii 摘要本論文檢視湯瑪士‧戴可及湯瑪士‧米德頓在詹姆士國王時期所書寫的城市喜劇，以探討社會動盪與空間感。城市喜劇作為一種受歡迎的文類當可視為十七世紀初的社會縮影。戴可與米德頓以倫敦市民的眼光，洞悉倫敦城的變動，並且將之諷刺於創作。劇本誇大地呈現道德的衰微，也重置不同階級、職業、與性別之空間。戴可與米德頓不只娛樂大眾，同時也批判了岌岌可危的社會秩序、空間裡的道德觀及性別角色。本論文透過四個章節審視社會不同層面的問題。第一章概觀了歷史文獻與行為禮儀之書，以重構作品中的社會背景，目的為探查早期詹姆士王時期社會動盪的可能原因。第二章分析不同社會階層的人物，以顯現統治階級與漸興的商人階級之間的道德僭越。第三章著重於以空間的視角，審視社會中的各式衝突。我借用亨利‧列斐伏爾對於公共與私密空間的觀察，佐以我對「管制空間」的定義，提供戴可與米德頓作品新的詮釋觀點。末章專注於空間中的性別角色。本論文藉由四部城市喜劇中的女性，主張女性所表現的自主性可作為抗衡男性威權的一大立基。經由四部城市喜劇之探討，本論文試圖提供十七世紀英國文藝復興戲劇的詮釋觀點，希冀在此領域為台灣研究貢獻微薄之力。關鍵字：湯瑪士‧戴可、湯瑪士‧米德頓、城市喜劇、詹姆士王一世、社會動盪、空間感、道德空間、性別空間 iii Abstract The thesis interrogates the social instability and spatialities by investigating Thomas Dekker’s and Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean city comedies. City Comedy as a popular genre can be viewed as the miniature of the society in the early seventeenth-century Jacobean England. As Londoners, Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton observe the change of the city and satirize it in their plays. The decline of morality and the rearrangement of different social spaces in various classes, occupations, and genders are dramatically presented. Dekker and Middleton not only entertain the public but also criticize the social (dis)order, the space of (im)morality, and space of genders at stake. The four chapters in this thesis examine different aspects of the society through four city comedies. The first chapter surveys historical documents and conduct books to restore Dekker’s and Middleton’s texts to their social contexts, the purpose of which is to scrutinize the possible reasons for social instability in the early Jacobean era. The second chapter analyzes the characters in different social strata to showcase the moral transgressions of the ruling class and the rising merchant class. The third chapter focuses on the social conflicts from the perspective of space. I borrow Henri Lefebvre’s observations on public and private space and I define the concept of “the confined space” so as to interpret anew Dekker’s and Middleton’s plays. The final chapter pays attention to the space of gender. By investigating women’s roles, the thesis argues that women’s individuality is shown as a standpoint to contrast men’s authority. Through the four chapters, I attempt to provide a new reading of the English Renaissance in the early seventeenth century and to contribute to the related research in Taiwan. Keywords: Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, city comedy, King James I, social instability, spatialities, moral spaces, gendered spaces iv Table of Contents 學位論文審定書 ............................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... ii 摘要 ................................................................................................................................. iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ iv Introduction A New Reading of Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton ................................... 1 Chapter I Unsettling England since 1604 ............................................................................... 19 Chapter II The Unstable Social Structure and (Im)moral Citizens .......................................... 31 Chapter III Voices of the Land and Conflicting Geographies of (Im)morality ......................... 50 Chapter IV Uncommon Women in Gendered Space: Daughter, Mother, Wife, and Whore ..... 76 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 101 References .................................................................................................................... 103 v Introduction A New Reading of Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton Thomas Dekker’s and Thomas Middleton’s satirical talents in city comedy enrich the English Renaissance in the early seventeenth century. As Shakespeare’s contemporaries, Dekker and Middleton pave a new and different way in the circle of theatre and in the world of literature. Both writers are well-achieved both in individual presentations and collaborated projects. Through their plays, we can see an unstable society in the early seventeenth century. The thesis will focus on the genre city comedy and discuss the social instability and different spaitialities. Some research questions should be raised before the thesis goes on prior to the further discussions. First, every character in their comedies is (im)morally exaggerated in speech and behavior. Moreover, the plots are deliberately designed with conflicts of moral values and gender issues. From this point, much research on Dekker and Middleton points out that the society in the early seventeenth century is not stable, but what is the cause? Second, if it is unstable as Dekker and Middleton present, how can we find out the possible reasons? Moreover, what are the hidden messages of Dekker’s and Middleton’s satirical plays? Do they detest and not feel any sense of the society in the early seventeenth century.? To answer the questions, I need to resort to the historical texts to unearth the possible reasons for the social instability. This is to discover how 1 Dekker and Middleton present such instability by examining the conflicts between people from different social status and between different spaces. The discovery can clarify what exactly Dekker and Middleton attempt to convey in their texts. Although much research on Dekker and Middleton has been done for the past decades, the central research focus is either on the issues of authorship or on the tradition and the novelty. Moreover, the research on Dekker and Middleton is comparatively scanty compared with that on other well-known writers, such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, or Ben Jonson. Only a few scholars in Taiwan concentrate on the two writers, and thus the thesis aims to provide a new reading of Dekker and Middleton by discussing four city comedies and to broaden the domain of Renaissance studies in Taiwan. Why Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton? Dekker and Middleton show their unique satirical intentions through writing city comedy, a genre popular in the late Elizabethan and the early Jacobean eras. Their way of dealing with certain social issues is rather different from how their fellow writers do. Before Dekker and Middleton gain their popularity, they have demonstrated their potential in writing satire. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), Middleton had created Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satyres

Load more