No description available.

LD2668 .T4 1954 R67 / Master of Science

“Shakespeare and the Drama of Politic Stratagems” focuses on how Shakespeare dramatically explores strategic issues similar to those discussed by Machiavelli and other early modern politic authors. The thesis is structured in order to tackle the diverse nature of strategy while developing and expanding on its most essential issues. The first chapter deals with the amoral and dangerous political world of the first tetralogy, a world in which one must be strategic in order to survive. Since not every strategist engages in the same kind of strategy or even agrees about what the best strategy might be, the second chapter outlines the different characteristics of Shakespeare’s strategists. These strategists can sometimes achieve success on their own, but no one can survive alone indefinitely, and the third chapter thus outlines the importance of strategic alliances and the dangers of making the wrong alliance. The fourth chapter deals with the numerous kinds of enemies that a strategist must contend with. Not all enemies fight in the same way, so a strategist must be on guard against an enemy’s deceptions, the focus of the fifth chapter. Even if these obstacles are overcome, even the most successful strategists will almost inevitably fail at some point or another. That failure may be due to some flaw in their schemes, or it may be due to the extreme difficulty of achieving success indefinitely. The final chapter deals with the perennial conflict between virtù and fortuna and thus the limits of politic stratagems. Machiavelli’s works can be seen as an epicenter of strategic thinking in the early modern period, and so they act as a guide through complex, contradictory, but ultimately rewarding issues of strategy and their consequences. Machiavelli serves as both analogue and foil, for while Shakespeare dramatizes similar strategic ideas, his dramatizations reveal greater truths about what is at stake when one explores the nature and consequences of politic stratagems. This thesis demonstrates the multiple factors that make strategy so dynamic and useful to a young dramatist in the process of discovering his own interests in the art of politics and the art of drama.

Challenging the currently orthodox "New Historicist" conception of Shakespeare's English history plays as a kind of "radically secular" historiography, this thesis attempts to show how Shakespeare's first chronicle play, 1--3HenryVI, was informed by and expressive of Protestant providential historiography. By comparing the texts of the plays with Foxe's Acts and Monuments, the central text of Elizabethan Protestant historiography, the author attempts to show how Foxe's influential history functioned both as an important source for Shakespeare's view of the past in 1--3HenryVI and as a vital intertext in terms of which the play would have been construed as history by Shakespeare's audience. At the heart of this source/intertext dynamic is the figure of Antichrist, a powerful historiographical symbol in Foxe which is adumbrated in Shakespeare's dramaturgy, giving the plays' representation of the violence of the Wars of the Roses era an ineluctably providential character. Having traced the Foxeian intertext in Shakespeare's play, the author concludes by suggesting that, again contrary to the secularizing bent of much recent "New Historicist" criticism, it is precisely because 1--3HenryVI spoke the language of Protestant providential history that Shakespeare's play was significantly "political" in its original late-Elizabethan historical moment.

No description available.

Dyslexia can benefit an actor, especially if the individual is aware of how the challenges and advantages of dyslexia impact their personal acting process. Dyslexia is widely understood to be a learning disability that affects an individual's reading and writing abilities. Many forms of theater rely on the written word, and an actor's success lies in their ability to interpret the text, leading one to question whether a dyslexic individual can find success as an actor. Yet several famous actors, including Octavia Spencer and Henry Winkler, are known to be dyslexic. As a dyslexic individual, I have also successfully participated in numerous productions despite the challenges I have faced within the art form. Thus, the difference between struggle and success for the dyslexic actor may lie in their understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Identifying dyslexia-specific weaknesses can lead to new coping strategies, recyclable methodologies, improved self-advocacy, and a higher level of confidence. Realizing that one's excellent spatial reasoning, story analysis skills, vivid mental images, and imaginative thinking are characteristics of the dyslexic brain's strengths can be equally empowering. The foundation of these discoveries gives way to a new understanding of dyslexia. The first chapter of this thesis focuses on the definition of dyslexia, the differences in structure and function of dyslexic brains compared to non-dyslexic brains, and how these differences can present challenges. This chapter also introduces advantages, known as MIND strengths, as identified, and defined by Brock Eide, MD, MA, and Fernette Eide, MD, in their 2023 book, The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain. These advantages were only recently defined and provide fresh insight into the workings of the dyslexic mind. The following two chapters discuss the identification of dyslexic-related challenges, strategies, and MIND strengths that contributed to the successes and disappointments I experienced while performing in two different theatrical productions. Chapter Two chronicles how the challenges, strategies, and MIND strengths affected my reading of the script, character creation, rehearsal process, and performance in Noises Off, written by Michael Frayn, while Chapter Three chronicles the same process for Henry VI- Part One by William Shakespeare. Though sharing this process intends to act as a guide to breaking down the acting process, encouraging the use of coping strategies, and discovering one's MIND strengths, this thesis serves only as a springboard for other dyslexic actors. The effect of dyslexia is specific to the individual, and each artistic experience and expression is unique.

Through an investigation of the problem of the authorship of 1 Henry VI, the author endeavors to present some new evidence concerning the play's authorship. The problem is examined from the standpoint of the relationship between authorship and sources.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Drawing on Katherine Eggert’s discussion of Joan la Pucelle’s dramatic skills, this thesis argues that, through effective performances on the characters around them, the women of Shakespeare’s first tetralogy achieve and exercise extensive political power and that the male project of silencing these women through vilification and condemnation is an attempt to diminish that political power. The women in these plays are not born to the power they achieve, and it is not bestowed upon them by others. The female characters of the first tetralogy use theatrical power to enter and, in some cases, dominate the masculine world of political authority through their theatrical skill. They persuade, seduce, manipulate, and argue their ways through the highest circles of political authority and, transgressing patriarchal notions of political authority, they wield decidedly unfeminine power.</p> <p>These plays demonstrate the potential public impact and rebellious or resistant power of the female voice. In the first chapter of this thesis, I argue that these characters, through dramatically effective speech, exert significant female political agency. In the second chapter, I further contend that the male project of silencing these women's voices, expressed through gendered slurs and accusations of sexual misconduct, is a method of subduing the women’s political power. By examining the subversive women of Shakespeare's first tetralogy, this thesis explores the ways in which these characters use voice to enter and, in some cases, dominate the masculine world of political authority.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)