Author: Marvin Rosenberg
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874134810
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 340
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Book Description
In what Norman Sanders has termed [a] now classic study, noted Shakespearean Marvin Rosenberg sets out to discover how the complex, troubled characters of the play have been interpreted by actors and critics from Shakespeare's time to the present.
Author: Marvin Rosenberg
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874134827
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 444
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Book Description
"LEAR: Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? / Who is it that can tell me who I am?" "Centuries of critics and actors have tried to tell, but Lear's identity, and the meaning of his action in the play, are still touched with enigma." "This book seeks Shakespeare's intentions in King Lear in new ways. It explores major interpretations of distinguished actors and directors as well as of critics from England, the United States, France, Belgium, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland. Is the play unsuited for the stage, as Charles Lamb - and others - have declared? How, in fact, has it been staged, and how visualized by critics? Is Lear designed to be a frail and aging old man? A powerful image of authority? Mad, or senile, to begin with? A kindly old father? Everyman? All of these? None? Does the play end with redemption? Unmitigated despair? Is it Christian? Pagan? Mr. Rosenberg confronts these and other questions from the base of his study and personal experience of the play." "To deepen the theatrical side of that experience, he began, as he did in his The Masks of Othello, with an involvement in the staged play: he directed and acted in Othello, and he followed a production of King Lear through two months of rehearsal and performance. One by-product of this intense participation was a discovery of some special qualities in the language of the play." "To achieve a better understanding of these qualities, Mr. Rosenberg put Lear's vocabulary through a computer, and established a concordance of every word both for the play as a whole and for each character. Interesting structural elements in Shakespeare's language become apparent." "Recognizing the difficulty, for a critic, of responding afresh to Shakespeare's craftsmanship in characterization and in arousing expectation, Mr. Rosenberg also arranged to expose the play to spectators who had never seen or read it. The response of this naive audience, after attending performances, was curious and illuminating. The author believes that any critical approach must be used that will increase our understanding of Shakespeare's work."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: Lindsey R. Swindall
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1604738251
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
Lindsey R. Swindall examines the historical and political context of acclaimed African American actor Paul Robeson’s three portrayals of Shakespeare’s Othello in the United Kingdom and the United States. These performances took place in London in 1930, on Broadway in 1943, and in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1959. All three of the productions, when considered together, provide an intriguing glimpse into Robeson’s artistry as well as his political activism. The Politics of Paul Robeson’s Othello maintains that Robeson’s development into a politically minded artist explicates the broader issue of the role of the African American artist in times of crisis. Robeson (1898–1976) fervently believed that political engagement was an inherent component of the role of the artist in society, and his performances demonstrate this conviction. In the 1930 production, audiences and critics alike confronted the question: Should a Black actor play Othello in an otherwise all-white cast? In the 1943 production on Broadway, Robeson consciously used the role as a form for questioning theater segregation both onstage and in the seats. In 1959, after he had become well known for his leftist views and sympathies with Communism, his performance in a major Stratford-upon-Avon production called into question whether audiences could accept onstage an African American who held radical—and increasingly unpopular—political views. Swindall thoughtfully uses Robeson’s Othello performances as a collective lens to analyze the actor and activist’s political and intellectual development.
Author: Virginia Mason Vaughan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521845847
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 212
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Book Description
An unusual study of the tradition of blackface in stage performance.
Author: Dieter Mehl
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521316903
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 286
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Book Description
Twelve plays are examined individually regarding their origins, stage and critical histories and the problems associated with their categorization as tragedy.
Author: Michael Neill
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191036153
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1179
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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Shakespearean Tragedy presents fifty-four essays by a range of scholars from all parts of the world. Together these essays offer readers a fresh and comprehensive understanding of Shakespeare tragedies as both works of literature and as performance texts written by a playwright who was himself an experienced actor. The opening section explores ways in which later generations of critics have shaped our idea of 'Shakespearean' tragedy, and addresses questions of genre by examining the playwright's inheritance from the classical and medieval past. The second section is devoted to current textual issues, while the third offers new critical readings of each of the tragedies. This is set beside a group of essays that deal with performance history, with screen productions, and with versions devised for the operatic stage, as well as with twentieth and twenty-first century re-workings of Shakespearean tragedy. The book's final section expands readers' awareness of Shakespeare's global reach, tracing histories of criticism and performance across Europe, the Americas, Australasia, the Middle East, Africa, India, and East Asia.
Author: Bernth Lindfors
Publisher: University Rochester Press
ISBN: 9781580462587
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
Ira Aldridge--a black New Yorker--was one of 19th-century Europe's greatest actors, performing abroad for 43 years, winning more awards, honors, and official decorations than any of his professional peers. This collection restores the luster to Aldridge's reputation by examining his extraordinary achievements against all odds.
Author: Emily Kugler
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004214224
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
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Book Description
By focusing on eighteenth-century English textual representations of the Ottomans, we can observe the turning point in public perceptions, the moments when English subjects began to believe British imperial power was a reality rather than an aspiration.
Author: Lizbeth Goodman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135636354
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 362
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Book Description
A clear introduction to the idea of the canon, exploring the process by which certain works, and not others, receive high cultural status. The work of Shakespeare and Aphra Behn is used to illustrate and challenge this process.
Author: John Horden
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 428
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Book Description
