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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Ophelia's Desire, James J. Marino
Ophelia's Desire, James J. Marino
English Faculty Publications
Psychoanalytic criticism renders Ophelia anomalous, no longer Hamlet's erotic object in her own right but a refraction of his cathexis on the Queen. This approach obscures how profoundly Ophelia, the only daughter in William Shakespeare to renounce the lover her father forbids, violates generic norms, and how structurally similar Hamlet's two examples of madness are. Hamlet and Ophelia go mad after sacrificing the independent (and expected) aims of adulthood at the commands of fathers whom the play links to figures of murderous aggression against children: the biblical Jephthah and Seneca's filicidal ghosts. Hamlet is a play haunted by fathers who …
Shylock Celebrates Easter, Brooke Conti
Shylock Celebrates Easter, Brooke Conti
English Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Othello's "Malignant Turk" And George Manwaring's "A True Discourse": The Cultural Politics Of A Textual Derivation, Imtiaz Habib
Othello's "Malignant Turk" And George Manwaring's "A True Discourse": The Cultural Politics Of A Textual Derivation, Imtiaz Habib
English Faculty Publications
A critique is presented of the play "Othello" by William Shakespeare, focusing on a reference from Othello's final speech to an incident in Aleppo, Syria that the author attributes to the manuscript essay "A True Discourse" by George Manwaring, a companion of English adventurer Sir Anthony Sherley. Early 17th century British history, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Queen Elizabeth I are mentioned, as well as references in the works to Turks and the censorship of English literature.
Monstrous!: Actors, Audiences, Inmates, And The Politics Of Reading Shakespeare, Matt Kozusko
Monstrous!: Actors, Audiences, Inmates, And The Politics Of Reading Shakespeare, Matt Kozusko
English Faculty Publications
This essay considers the use of Shakespeare as marker of authenticity and as a therapeutic space for performers and audiences across a number of genres, from professional actors in training literature to prison inmates in radio and film documentaries. It argues that in the wake of recent academic trends—the critique of "Shakespeare" as an author figure; the privileging of the text as a source of multiple, potentially conflicting readings—Shakespeare's function as cultural capital has shifted sites, from "Shakespeare" to the playtexts themselves.
The 'To Be, Or Not To Be' Speech: Evidence, Conventional Wisdom, And The Editing Of Hamlet, James Hirsh
The 'To Be, Or Not To Be' Speech: Evidence, Conventional Wisdom, And The Editing Of Hamlet, James Hirsh
English Faculty Publications
Substantial, conspicuous, and varied pieces of evidence demonstrate that Shakespeare designed the 'To be, or not to be' speech to be perceived by experienced playgoers of his time as a feigned soliloquy. Plentiful evidence within the play implies that Hamlet pretends to speak to himself but actually intends the speech itself or an account of it to reach the ears of Claudius in order to mislead his enemy about his state of mind. External evidence demonstrates that experienced playgoers of the period did indeed make the inference intended by Shakespeare. I pointed out much of this evidence in a 1981 …
Racial Impersonation On The Elizabethan Stage: The Case Of Shakespeare Playing Aaron, Imtiaz Habib
Racial Impersonation On The Elizabethan Stage: The Case Of Shakespeare Playing Aaron, Imtiaz Habib
English Faculty Publications
The article focuses on the implications of playwright William Shakespeare performing racial roles himself, such as Aaron in "Titus Andronicus." Several plays are discussed, including "Titus Andronicus," "The Merchant of Venice," and "Othello." The SHAXICON database, which compiles the text of Shakespeare's plays, is the primary source of evidence to suggest Shakespeare acted in his plays. Information about race relations in Great Britain's society during Shakespeare's time is also given.
The Pathology Of Rhetoric In Coriolanus, Yvonne Bruce
The Pathology Of Rhetoric In Coriolanus, Yvonne Bruce
English Faculty Publications
Coriolanus seems to be a play of action, a dramatized world of mutinous citizens, plotting tribunes, famine, war, and banishment. Yet what really happens in this world? The citizens never realize their mutiny. Brutus and Sicinius never realize their illdefined plot, Coriolanus' consulship is rescinded, the mutual banishment of Coriolanus is undone by his resolve not to make "true wars" against Rome. and the defeat of Aufidius in act one becomes a meaningless victory when Coriolanus is in turn defeated in the final scene of the play. Perhaps it is more accurate to call Coriolanus a play of action, a …
"That Reason Wonder May Diminish": As You Like It, Androgyny, And The Theater Wars, Grace C. Tiffany
"That Reason Wonder May Diminish": As You Like It, Androgyny, And The Theater Wars, Grace C. Tiffany
English Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.