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Full-Text Articles in Modern Languages
Symbols, Referents, And Theatrical Semantics: The Use Of Hands In The Comedia, Matthew D. Stroud
Symbols, Referents, And Theatrical Semantics: The Use Of Hands In The Comedia, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
One of the most important products of the application of New Criticism to the comedia was the discovery of the functions of clusters of images to the dramatic and theatrical themes within a play. Among the most pervasive and subtle images and symbols are those involving hands and, by extension, arms, rings, gloves, and daggers. A quick, impressionistic overview of the connotations of hands reveals a number of different and often contradictory meanings: trust and treachery, power and submission, salvation and damnation, to mention only a few. So ubiquitous are hands, and so necessary are they to the plot complications …
The Comedia As Playscript, Matthew D. Stroud
The Comedia As Playscript, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The relationship between literary text and theatrical performance is the subject of intense discussion and occasional animosity between those who believe that performance is only the faithful translation of the text from one medium to another and those for whom a playscript is only a starting point or a secondary element to performance. We do know, however, that the comedias were written to be performed, that there are performance signs imbedded in the texts themselves, and that if we ignore performance altogether we end up teaching the literary texts as though they were novels or poems. The problem that this …