Final Dissertation Including Front Matter
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Signature: _____________________________ ______________ Irene Middleton Date “Audience Communities: Early Modern Desire in Post-1956 British Performance” By Irene Middleton Doctor of Philosophy English _________________________________________ Dr. Sheila Cavanagh Advisor _________________________________________ Dr. Michael Evenden Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Harry Rusche Committee Member Accepted: _________________________________________ Lisa A. Tedesco, Ph.D. Dean of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies ___________________ Date “Audience Communities: Early Modern Desire in Post-1956 British Performance” By Irene Middleton M.A., Emory University, 2009 Advisor: Dr. Sheila Cavanagh, PhD An abstract of A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English 2010 Abstract “Audience Communities: Early Modern Desire in Post-1956 British Performance” By Irene Middleton Live theatre creates significant reactions in audience members through their cognitive and interpretative participation in performance. While individual reactions might diverge and fade away, the group reaction of the audience reinforces the shared interpretation visually and aurally, increasing the power of the staged event. The shared experience of participation and interpretation links audience members them together into “an audience,” a collective body that sustains itself as a community through its shared experience and reactions. Cognitive science supports the conclusion that audience members have more similarities than differences in their response to performance. On an unconscious cognitive level, audience members participate in the creation of meaning from performed actions and language. The resulting conscious interpretation is also guided by shared species- and culture-wide experiences. The combination of naturalism in acting and abstraction in sets and costuming encourages participation in productions of early modern drama over the last fifty years in Britain. Naturalism presents a firm and comfortable basis for creating meanings while abstraction encourages an increased degree of involvement in interpretation, encouraging audience members to participate in developing similar interpretations. Desires provide an enticing possibility for participation and have the potential to build especially cohesive audiences. Some audience members’ might limit their conscious participation in staged desires to those that fit their sexual orientation. Early modern drama, however, has a fruitful combination of the familiar and the alien, regularly producing moments that are identifiable as desires yet are evasive of modern sexual identity categories. These “queer desires” lure all audience members into interpretive participation with the titillation of desire without threatening sexual self- identity. The shared experience of queer desires of early modern plays draws audience members together into the communal audience. Three case studies focus on early modern dramas that use queer desires to create the communal audience and then manipulate it, encouraging group reactions in support of central themes. This dissertation examines Titus Andronicus, which increases a longing for community, The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice, which increase a yearning for ethnic and religious tolerance, and As You Like It, which encourages support for patriarchal structures. “Audience Communities: Early Modern Desire in Post-1956 British Performance” By Irene Middleton M.A., Emory University, 2009 Advisor: Dr. Sheila Cavanagh, PhD A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English 2010 Acknowledgments This dissertation is the result of the efforts of many, to whom I am truly thankful. First thanks must go to Dr. Sheila Cavanagh for her thoughtful advice and unstinting support in all areas of my graduate career. I am forever indebted to her for her generosity of time and attention over the past seven years. Thanks also go to Drs. Harry Rusche and Michael Evenden, whose infectious enthusiasm for drama spurred much of this dissertation. I owe to my committee all that is best in this dissertation, especially in their support of my diverse interests. To Dr. Alice Hickcox and Dr. Erika Farr I give my thanks for their patience and wonderful conversations that inspired me to look at texts in new ways and to stretch my graduate learning well beyond the classroom. Special thanks also go to Melanie Tipnis and Jacque Aly, whose kind help with the intricacies of Emory’s bureaucracy and personal care has made this dissertation possible. Dr. Russell Jackson, the students of the Theatre History seminar, and the staff of the Folger Institute deserve thanks for renewing my love of early modern drama at a key point in my dissertation work. Thanks also go to the staff of the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe archives, whose kind guidance made the primary-source research of this dissertation a joy to complete. I also send my thanks those people and institutions that have supported my work on the dissertation and teaching including Dr. John Bugge, Dr. Rebecca Burnett, Dr. Andrew Cooper, Dr. Louise Geddes, Dr. Christine Loflin, Dr. Richard Rambuss, Emory’s Department of English, James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies, Lewis H. Beck Center for Electronic Collections and Services, the Woodruff Library, the Emory Center for Interactive Teaching, and Emory’s Oxford College. My thanks also to those who offered opportunities to receive feedback from others in my field through conferences, including Dr. Roslyn Knutson, Dr. Lois Potter, the Marlowe Society, and the Shakespeare Association of America. I would also like to acknowledge the frequent advice and care from friends, especially the support of Dr. Lillie Craton, Carol DeFord, John Dunwoody, Elizabeth Fisher, Melissa Maday, Dr. Tiffany Tsao, and Dr. Robin Wharton, without whom my time in graduate school would have been far less enjoyable. Dr. Jennifer Hughes deserves special thanks for implementing her dissertation subject in her funny and sympathetic shepherding of this dissertation and its author. Thanks also to Kerry Higgins Wendt for keeping me on track during the last year. Sincere thanks go to my parents, Kent and Karol Middleton, whose interest, understanding, and support made this dissertation possible. For their inspiration on this journey, I also thank my extended family, especially Granny, whose questioning of my poor explanations of queer theory made this dissertation far more approachable. Finally, I give my thanks to my fiancé, Richard Huzzey, whose love and patience made completing this dissertation possible. Table of Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1: The Communal Audience Cognition, Interpretation, and Desire 9 Chapter 2: Desiring Horror 39 Chapter 3: Desiring Difference 89 Chapter 4: Desiring Youth 160 Conclusion 209 Works Cited: Print 276 Works Cited: Film and Performance 316 1 Preface In 2006, the Globe theatre in London produced William Shakespeare’s bloody revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus. Although presenting its lofty language and high body count on the abstract bare stage of the Globe would seem to promote disengagement in audience members accustomed to the naturalism of film, the play had a significant effect on the spectators. Audience members cried out, moaned, turned away, and fainted when they faced Titus’s daughter Lavinia, raped and mutilated, dripping stage blood from her “tongueless” mouth. It was clear to the audience members that the actress that had not been harmed, that this was only costume bandages and stage blood, yet the stage created powerful reactions. In this dissertation I take up this central question about theatre: How does the stage create these significant reactions? I argue that these reactions are driven by audience members’ cognitive and interpretative participation in performance. While individual reactions might diverge and fade away, the group reaction of the audience reinforces the shared interpretation visually and aurally, increasing the power of the staged event. The shared experience of participation and interpretation links audience members together into “an audience,” a collective body that sustains itself as a community through its shared experience and reactions. The creation of “an audience” encourages continued participation—maintaining the communal audience—and increases the impact of onstage events by reverberating them through the audience. The plays examined here build such communal audiences, which causes