English literature 1 - Chapter 8, Slide di Letteratura Inglese

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Dramatic Achievements:

Late Tudor Drama

Chapter 8

N.B.: Molte delle informazioni corrispondono e richiamano quanto fatto

nelle lezioni e quanto scritto nelle introduzioni della Norton Anthology

Structure

1. The Cultural Niche
2. Style, Form, and Subject
3. Sub-Genres

1. Court Drama

2. Tragedy: Heroic and Domestic Transgression

3. The Histories: Self and Nation

4. Comedy: Romantic, Nationalistic, Satiric

1. The Cultural Niche

• Two types of patrons for companies: 1. Nominal lords : the noble patron who gave his name to the company in order to ensure protection after the 1572 Act that banned vagabonds à companies had to find a patron 2. Theatrical entrepreneurs: e.g. Philip Henslowe (who financed the Rose), James Burbage (who financed the Theatre)
• Censorship: since 1574 the Master of the Revels licensed (authorized) plays for

performance; the most famous is Edmund Tilney.

but

• Allusion to topical events: many plays had nonetheless allusions to topical events

although there was a formal prohibition for plays to deal with matters of religion and

politics since 1559 à it was not very effective!

2. Style, Form, and Subject

• Main features that made drama immensely popular in this period:
  • Characters with deep subjectivity
  • Variety of styles (tragic, comic, …)
  • Conventions such as five-act structure, prologues, …
  • Innovations in genres à revenge tragedy, tragicomedy, comedy of humours
  • Topical allusions to contemporary politics or religion
  • Meta-theatricality : playwrights addressed a very self-conscious audience, who knew they were attending a performance à meta-theatrical references, i.e., references to drama within drama e.g. Hamlet has a play staged for his mother and uncle which shows their misdeeds
• Compare with the features of Early Tudor Drama (Ch. 7)

à less allegorical (greater attention to characters and their fictional subjectivity) but

à equally interested in contemporary events

3. Sub-genres

• Tragedy: highly influenced by Seneca’s tragedies
  • Transgression of the hero : Marlowe’s Tamburlaine and Dr Faustus Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy Shakespeare and Peele’s Titus Andronicus
  • Transgression at home: Arden of Faversham (anonymous, maybe by Thomas Watson) Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Killed with Kindness cf. Shakespeare’s most domestic tragedy, i.e. Othello (di pag. 162 - 164 basta conoscere questi titoli con le giuste classificazioni)

3. Subgenres

• Comedies:
  • Mixture of styles: « romantic », i.e., similar to romances (medieval long poems) à love mixed with adventure and magic in pastoral settings but also realistic and satiric à this aspect would eventually lead to the city comedy and comedy of humours during the Jacobean period
  • Techniques: crossdressing à characters that cross-dress (travestirsi) during the play e.g. in Shakespeare’s As You Like It à moral issues: male actors dressing as women who cross-dress as men! plays were attacked for this arranged marriages (legacy of classical comedy writers such as Terence and Plautus) (di pag. 167 - 170 tralasciate le analisi delle varie opere citate ad esempio e seguite questo schema; Tralasciate pp. 171-174)