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Absent Presence: Li Yu’S Drama Wanli Yuan And Early Qing Sartorial Politics, Guojun Wang Oct 2013

Absent Presence: Li Yu’S Drama Wanli Yuan And Early Qing Sartorial Politics, Guojun Wang

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

Li Yu’s 李玉 Wanli yuan 萬里圓 (Thousand-li Reunion) is one of the few dramas in the early Qing period that directly addresses the topic of the Ming-Qing transition. Although Wanli yuan was never published in its entirety during the Qing Dynasty, its popular scenes circulated widely on stage, resulting in a series of “performance editions.” Oriented toward stage performance, most of Li Yu’s plays include detailed costume instruction. By contrast, almost none of the extant editions of Wanli yuan includes any costume instruction. Despite this absence, the dialogues and stage directions of the extant performance editions show that different scenes …

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"Words, Words, Words": The Idea Of The Absurd As Method In Hamlet., Anthony Faber Mar 2013

"Words, Words, Words": The Idea Of The Absurd As Method In Hamlet., Anthony Faber

Modern Languages and Literatures Annual Graduate Conference

In this paper I explore the idea that Hamlet develops the notion of the absurd as a method with which to confront his world: however, as art imitates nature, Hamlet's discourse of "an antic disposition" suggests, that he in fact embodies the absurd as constituting a meaningless existence.

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Class Movements In The New South Africa: Post-Colonial Politics, Neocolonialism, And Mimicry In Pieter-Dirk Uys’S Macbeki A Farce To Be Reckoned With, J. Coplen Rose Mar 2013

Class Movements In The New South Africa: Post-Colonial Politics, Neocolonialism, And Mimicry In Pieter-Dirk Uys’S Macbeki A Farce To Be Reckoned With, J. Coplen Rose

Modern Languages and Literatures Annual Graduate Conference

This paper uses Homi Bhabha’s theory of colonial mimicry to analyze Pieter-Dirk Uys’s MacBeki: A Farce to be Reckoned With. In doing so I posit MacBeki is a colonial mimic, a character who comically imitates European gestures and language. MacBeki’s behaviour throughout the play highlights the dangers of greed and corruption in post-apartheid South Africa and encourages the play’s audience to respond with ridiculing laughter. My paper concludes by arguing that Uys’s play should be read as a hybrid text that draws on European dramatic styles and South African political events, staging a critical response to national uncertainties ahead …

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Turkish Shadow Puppetry And The Carnivalesque, Anna (Raff) Miller Mar 2013