This is the first full-scale study of Robert Greene’s drama, offering a new interpretation of the dramatic oeuvre of one Shakespeare’s most neglected literary predecessors. Recent criticism has emphasised Greene’s pioneering role as an author of Elizabethan romance. Yet, in contrast to the numerous prose works which were printed during his life time, his drama, which was printed posthumously, has received little attention. Greene’s plays are visually magnificent: madmen wander on stage waving the severed limbs of their victims (Orlando Furioso, c. 1591), the dead are resurrected (James IV, c. 1590), tyrants gruesomely mutilate their subjects (Selimus, c. 1591-4), extravagant stage properties such as the mysterious brazen head prophesy to the audience (Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, c. 1589), and sinners are swallowed into hell accompanied by fireworks (A Looking Glass for London and England, c. 1588). This thesis will examine the way in which these stage images evoke astonishment, which in turn encourages the audience to contemplate their symbolic significance. The triumph of Greene’s drama is not one of effects over affect; it lies in the interaction between effect and affect. My principal objective in this thesis is to develop a methodological strategy which will allow critics of non-Shakespearean plays, which frequently lack a substantial performance tradition, to study drama through the lens of performance. Engaging purposively with anachronism as an enabling mode of linking old and new, this thesis will draw analogies between the early modern stage and modern cinema in order to emphasise the relevance of early modern drama to today’s ocularcentric world, a relevance that more historical theoretical approaches would seek to deny. My opening chapter will try to establish Greene’s dramatic canon and assess the critical reception of Greene’s plays. Drawing on material from Greene’s entire oeuvre, Chapter Two will outline my methodological and conceptual approach. This chapter will include an extended analysis of Friar Bacon’s discussion of the ‘strategy with cunning shows’ in John of Bordeaux (JB. 735). Launching into detailed studies of specific spectacles, Chapter Three focuses on Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene’s collaborative effort, the biblical drama A Looking Glass for London and England. During the play, Prophet Jonah is ‘cast out of the whale’s belly upon the stage’ (LG. IV.i.1460-1). Focusing on this stage spectacle, this chapter seeks to emphasise the commercial appeal of this biblical drama. Examining another stage property, Chapter Four will explore the melodramatic and sensational potential of the tomb stage property in Greene’s James IV. Examining the apparent tension between the play’s two presenters, I will demonstrate that Bohan, a cynical Scot, and Oberon, the King of the Fairies, proffer two distinct, but not mutually exclusive, ways of conceiving of and interpreting theatrical spectacle. Completing my study of spectacular stage properties, Chapter Five examines the symbolic significance of the brazen head, which appears in two of Greene’s plays: Alphonsus, King of Aragon and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. In both plays, the brazen head becomes an object of excessive or supreme devotion as either a religious idol or a secular deity. The brazen head is perceived as monstrous not simply because it is a source of horror or astonishment but because it represents the misplaced veneration or worship of something other than God. Turning away from stage properties, my final two chapters look at how Greene exploited specific stage conventions. Directing my attention towards Greene’s Orlando Furioso (c. 1591), I will argue that the figure of Orlando Furioso bequeathed an enduring legacy to early modern theatrical discourse, contributing to the convention of the mad poet, which would be replicated and parodied by a new generation of dramatists. Orlando’s behaviour, which rapidly alternates between that of a madman and that of a poet, forces the audience to contemplate the link between the mania of the mentally ill and the melancholia of the creative genius. Ridiculing the concept of furor poeticus, Greene’s play interrogates the belief that great writers are divinely inspired by God through ecstatic revelation. My final chapter will explore the aesthetics of violence in Selimus. A relatively recent addition to the Greene canon, Selimus depicts the rise of an anti-hero amidst a cycle of brutal violence. My reading of this play posits Selimus as a surrogate playwright, arguing that the semiotics of dismemberment allows Greene to interrogate the concept of artistic autonomy. Widespread indifference to Greene’s work has facilitated critical blindness to the powerful aesthetic appeal of spectacle in early modern drama. This reassessment of Robert Greene’s dramatic oeuvre offers a new perspective on the aesthetics of spectacle in early modern drama.

Esta tese sobre a história da dramaturgia no Brasil tomou como pressuposto a ideia de formação, inspirada na obra de Antonio Candido, Formação da Literatura Brasileira, que é caracterizada por definir, no campo das letras nacionais, a ambivalência que marca nosso processo de constituição cultural, marcado pelo empréstimo de formas artísticas importadas em desajuste com a realidade histórica local. Procuramos traçar o percurso de formação de uma dramaturgia nacional identificando os limites e avanços deste processo de aclimatação das formas e gêneros de origem europeia, escolhendo objetos de análise específicos, a saber, obras e autores considerados como \"momentos decisivos\". Partimos da hipótese de que, no âmbito teatral, os \"momentos decisivos\" desta formação são aqueles influenciados pelos conceitos europeus (formulados pelo crítico Peter Szondi) de drama burguês, drama moderno e de teatro épico, que, no entanto, ao serem incorporados pelos autores teatrais brasileiros geraram formas híbridas, \"arruinadas\" e desajustadas em relação aos modelos originais. Consideramos que tal importação, assolada por um processo histórico também ele altamente contraditório e desigual, gerou entre nós diversas manifestações teatrais fraturadas, que poderiam ser contempladas por um conceito ampliado de tragédia. Procuraremos identificar, nestes momentos decisivos, diversas manifestações de uma certa dialética trágica que, não obstante sua diversidade, poderia caracterizar esse processo de formação como capaz de gerar obras tão dilaceradas quanto o tecido social que lhes corresponde. / This thesis on the history of dramaturgy in Brazil explores the idea of formation, inspired by Antonio Candido\'s work Formação da Literatura Brasileira (Brazilian\'s Literature Formation), which is known in the national literary field for defining the ambivalence that exists in our cultural constitution process, and is characterized by the influence of imported artistic forms imbalanced with local historical realities. We seek to trace the development of a national dramaturgy, identifying the boundaries and advances in the acclimation process of European forms and genres, by selecting key analytical pieces, namely works and authors considered to be \"turning points\". We hypothesize that these decisive moments are the ones influenced by the European concepts of bourgeois drama, modern drama and epictheater formulated by the critic Peter Szondi; by incorporating such concepts, Brazilian playwrights have generated hybrid forms, \"ruined\" and misfits of the original models. This thesis considers how such importation - coupled with a highly contradictory and uneven historical background - has generated amongst us several fractured theatrical manifestations that could be categorized under a broader concept of tragedy. We will seek to identify, from these decisive moments, indications of a certain tragic dialectic and how it, not withstanding its own diversity, could characterize this formation process capable of generating new works as lacerated as the social fabric to which they correspond.

This dissertation examines early modern literary engagements with the rhetorical and ethical dimensions of law reform. One of the most important mechanisms of social regulation in late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean England, law reform was a matter of, first, the “perfection” of the organization and expression of existing laws, legal instruments, and legal processes. However counter-intuitively, these officially-sponsored reforms were calculated to prevent more radical innovations that would generate “inconveniences,” systemic contradictions and uncertainties that threatened the law’s ability to produce just results. Second, law reformers generated a discourse on “execution” that targeted the character of legal representatives. This tradition of character criticism, delivered directly from the Lord Keeper’s mouth or circulated through other legal-political, literary, theatrical, didactic, and religious works, encouraged officers’ conscientious execution of their duties and alerted the English public to the signs of the abuse of authority. Law reform created a distinct critical orientation toward legal and governing activities that was reproduced throughout a system of justice in which an extraordinary number of subjects participated. It was a critical orientation, moreover, that was refracted in literature sensitive to the implications of the socio-political dominance of legal language, traditions, and officers. The principles and practices of law reform—along with the conflicts and anxieties that inspired and sprang from them—were appropriated by amateur and professional writers alike. Close readings reveal that Inns-of-Court revellers, Francis Bacon, John Donne and Shakespeare all engaged deeply with the potential, as well as the ethical and practical limitations, of law reform’s central role in local and national governance. In the Gesta Grayorum and Donne’s “Satyre V,” the reveller and the satiric speaker improvise on legal forms to compensate for the law’s imperfections that threaten the security and prosperity of the English subject. In Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and The Winter’s Tale, the character of the legal-political officer and reformer is tested as he attempts to put policies and principles into practice.

This dissertation examines early modern literary engagements with the rhetorical and ethical dimensions of law reform. One of the most important mechanisms of social regulation in late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean England, law reform was a matter of, first, the “perfection” of the organization and expression of existing laws, legal instruments, and legal processes. However counter-intuitively, these officially-sponsored reforms were calculated to prevent more radical innovations that would generate “inconveniences,” systemic contradictions and uncertainties that threatened the law’s ability to produce just results. Second, law reformers generated a discourse on “execution” that targeted the character of legal representatives. This tradition of character criticism, delivered directly from the Lord Keeper’s mouth or circulated through other legal-political, literary, theatrical, didactic, and religious works, encouraged officers’ conscientious execution of their duties and alerted the English public to the signs of the abuse of authority. Law reform created a distinct critical orientation toward legal and governing activities that was reproduced throughout a system of justice in which an extraordinary number of subjects participated. It was a critical orientation, moreover, that was refracted in literature sensitive to the implications of the socio-political dominance of legal language, traditions, and officers. The principles and practices of law reform—along with the conflicts and anxieties that inspired and sprang from them—were appropriated by amateur and professional writers alike. Close readings reveal that Inns-of-Court revellers, Francis Bacon, John Donne and Shakespeare all engaged deeply with the potential, as well as the ethical and practical limitations, of law reform’s central role in local and national governance. In the Gesta Grayorum and Donne’s “Satyre V,” the reveller and the satiric speaker improvise on legal forms to compensate for the law’s imperfections that threaten the security and prosperity of the English subject. In Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and The Winter’s Tale, the character of the legal-political officer and reformer is tested as he attempts to put policies and principles into practice.

This thesis is an investigation of the representation of the figure of the man who raped on the early modern stage. The early modern “man who raped” must be distinguished from the modern term “rapist” insofar as the modern term ascribes an ontological or sociological position to the individual male that was alien to the early modern world view. The shifting value of “rape” in the early modern period presaged more modern conceptions of rape as “an experience imposed on an embodied subject, a violent sexual assault that in its corporal nature destabilizes the intersubjective personhood of the victim” (Cahill 207). As such, the shifting values of the term also prefigured more modern conceptions of masculinity and the successful performance of masculine values. The figure of the man who raped on the early modern English stage often was not merely the monster against which successful forms of masculine behaviour could be contrasted – often such characters found a sympathetic audience. And often, that audience was encouraged and directed through paratextual and dramaturgical devices to see themselves in and identify with the man who raped, for he could be redeemed. This thesis uses the lens of the Roman play to investigate sexual assault because Roman plays clarified masculine ideals for the early moderns; Rome, civilization, manliness, stoic self-control and virtus on the early modern stage were all coincident terms that articulated sexual difference and therefore the construction of the male subject (Kahn 15). The first section looks extensively at the English inheritance of Roman and Anglo-Saxon laws on sexual assault, while the subsequent chapters turn to early modern drama more closely. The plays under study are Marston’s Wonder of Women, Heywood’s Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Middleton’s Hengist, King of Kent, and Fletcher’s Bonduca. / SSHRC, School of English and Theatre Studies, College of Arts

Este trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar duas peças de Nelson Rodrigues, Álbum de família e Os sete gatinhos, à luz das teorias sobre o drama expostas por Peter Szondi em Teoria do drama burguês e Teoria do drama moderno. Verifica-se a relação dessas obras de Nelson Rodrigues com o gênero literário “drama”. As alterações que tal gênero sofreu ao longo dos séculos XVIII, XIX e XX nos mostram que os acontecimentos histórico-sociais influenciam determinantemente a maneira como a literatura explora determinados temas. Nesse sentido, a decadência do patriarcalismo no Brasil bem como a sua manutenção nas relações sociais está representada mediante uma estética que mistura vanguarda, comédia, chanchada e drama no teatro rodriguiano. Desse modo, a estrutura formal das peças de Nelson Rodrigues revela não só um autor consciente dos recursos estéticos de que dispunha como também a trajetória peculiar do drama no Brasil. / This work aims to analyze two plays by Nelson Rodrigues, Álbum de família and Os sete gatinhos, in the light of the drama theories exposed by Peter Szondi in Teoria do drama burguês and Teoria do drama moderno. Here we check the relationship between these two plays with the literary genre historically called drama. The changes this gender has experienced over the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries show us that historical events have strongly influenced the way Literature explores certain issues. In this sense, the decline of patriarchy in Brazil, as well as its conservation inside the social relations, is represented in an aesthetics that mixes avant-garde, comedy of manners, chanchada and drama in Nelson Rodrigues’ works. Therefore, the formal structure of Nelson’s plays unveils not only an author aware of his aesthetic resources, but also the peculiar path of drama in Brazil.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-04-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:26:25Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 leite_al_me_arafcl.pdf: 864986 bytes, checksum: 0067c970ef9b685707a6e900dd9a6ce9 (MD5) / A obra de arte dramática, diferentemente de outras formas artístico-literárias, é a que de forma mais prática e imediata estabelece uma relação entre seu realizador e o público ao qual ela é destinada. Contudo, o drama moderno, produzido a partir do final do século XIX, passou por uma série de crises e adaptações quanto à forma e ao conteúdo, decorrentes de várias mudanças ocorridas nos mais diversos setores da sociedade. Edward Albee é um dos maiores dramaturgos norte-americanos da segunda metade do séc. XX. Seguindo uma tradição que produziria grandes talentos como Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams e Arthur Miller, o novo autor surge em 1958 com seu texto, The Zoo Story, associado ao Teatro do Absurdo. A peça de forma minimalista põe em cena dois bancos de praça e duas personagens: Peter que é a própria personificação do self made man, já que está enjaulado aos ideais e aos valores burgueses de vida, e Jerry o outsider ou o transeunte permanente que não se insere nos padrões, no código moral e de valores socialmente estabelecidos. Entretanto, ou por isso mesmo, possui uma capacidade reflexiva extremamente aguçada. O objetivo é tratar de um aspecto da peça - a questão da absurvidade e da liberdade, como formas de transcender a angústia existencial e a vida sem significado em um contexto destituído de símbolos metafísicos. Analisar-se-ão os elementos relacionados a estes tópicos bem como o modo que servem de instrumento para o esvaziamento da ideologia burguesa, que culmina na crítica ácida que Edward Albee desfere ao American way of life. / Dramatic art, differently from other literacy-artistic forms, is the one that most practically and immediately establishes a relationship between its producer and the audience it is created for. However, modern drama, produced since the end of nineteenth century, has gone through many crises and adaptations in its form and content, originated from many changes occured in the various instances of society. Edward Albee is one of the major American playwrights of the second half of the twentieth century. Following a tradition which produced gifted authors such as Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, the new author appears with his play The Zoo Story in 1958, associated to the Theater of the Absurd. The play, in a minimalist way, stages two park benches and two characters: Peter, the personification of the self made man, encaged in the bourgeois ideals and values of life; and Jerry, the outsider or the permanent transient who does not fill in the patterns, in the moral code or the established social values. However, or because of this, he has a sharpened reflexive ability. The aim of our search is to treat one aspect of the play - absurdity and freedom - a means of transceding existential anguish and life without meaning in a context deprived of metaphysical symbols. We intend to analyze elements related to these topics, as well as the way they function as instruments for the emptying bourgeois ideology which, ends up the sour criticism Albee aims at the American way of life.

Este trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar duas peças de Nelson Rodrigues, Álbum de família e Os sete gatinhos, à luz das teorias sobre o drama expostas por Peter Szondi em Teoria do drama burguês e Teoria do drama moderno. Verifica-se a relação dessas obras de Nelson Rodrigues com o gênero literário “drama”. As alterações que tal gênero sofreu ao longo dos séculos XVIII, XIX e XX nos mostram que os acontecimentos histórico-sociais influenciam determinantemente a maneira como a literatura explora determinados temas. Nesse sentido, a decadência do patriarcalismo no Brasil bem como a sua manutenção nas relações sociais está representada mediante uma estética que mistura vanguarda, comédia, chanchada e drama no teatro rodriguiano. Desse modo, a estrutura formal das peças de Nelson Rodrigues revela não só um autor consciente dos recursos estéticos de que dispunha como também a trajetória peculiar do drama no Brasil. / This work aims to analyze two plays by Nelson Rodrigues, Álbum de família and Os sete gatinhos, in the light of the drama theories exposed by Peter Szondi in Teoria do drama burguês and Teoria do drama moderno. Here we check the relationship between these two plays with the literary genre historically called drama. The changes this gender has experienced over the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries show us that historical events have strongly influenced the way Literature explores certain issues. In this sense, the decline of patriarchy in Brazil, as well as its conservation inside the social relations, is represented in an aesthetics that mixes avant-garde, comedy of manners, chanchada and drama in Nelson Rodrigues’ works. Therefore, the formal structure of Nelson’s plays unveils not only an author aware of his aesthetic resources, but also the peculiar path of drama in Brazil.

Este trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar duas peças de Nelson Rodrigues, Álbum de família e Os sete gatinhos, à luz das teorias sobre o drama expostas por Peter Szondi em Teoria do drama burguês e Teoria do drama moderno. Verifica-se a relação dessas obras de Nelson Rodrigues com o gênero literário “drama”. As alterações que tal gênero sofreu ao longo dos séculos XVIII, XIX e XX nos mostram que os acontecimentos histórico-sociais influenciam determinantemente a maneira como a literatura explora determinados temas. Nesse sentido, a decadência do patriarcalismo no Brasil bem como a sua manutenção nas relações sociais está representada mediante uma estética que mistura vanguarda, comédia, chanchada e drama no teatro rodriguiano. Desse modo, a estrutura formal das peças de Nelson Rodrigues revela não só um autor consciente dos recursos estéticos de que dispunha como também a trajetória peculiar do drama no Brasil. / This work aims to analyze two plays by Nelson Rodrigues, Álbum de família and Os sete gatinhos, in the light of the drama theories exposed by Peter Szondi in Teoria do drama burguês and Teoria do drama moderno. Here we check the relationship between these two plays with the literary genre historically called drama. The changes this gender has experienced over the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries show us that historical events have strongly influenced the way Literature explores certain issues. In this sense, the decline of patriarchy in Brazil, as well as its conservation inside the social relations, is represented in an aesthetics that mixes avant-garde, comedy of manners, chanchada and drama in Nelson Rodrigues’ works. Therefore, the formal structure of Nelson’s plays unveils not only an author aware of his aesthetic resources, but also the peculiar path of drama in Brazil.

Esta tese sobre a história da dramaturgia no Brasil tomou como pressuposto a ideia de formação, inspirada na obra de Antonio Candido, Formação da Literatura Brasileira, que é caracterizada por definir, no campo das letras nacionais, a ambivalência que marca nosso processo de constituição cultural, marcado pelo empréstimo de formas artísticas importadas em desajuste com a realidade histórica local. Procuramos traçar o percurso de formação de uma dramaturgia nacional identificando os limites e avanços deste processo de aclimatação das formas e gêneros de origem europeia, escolhendo objetos de análise específicos, a saber, obras e autores considerados como \"momentos decisivos\". Partimos da hipótese de que, no âmbito teatral, os \"momentos decisivos\" desta formação são aqueles influenciados pelos conceitos europeus (formulados pelo crítico Peter Szondi) de drama burguês, drama moderno e de teatro épico, que, no entanto, ao serem incorporados pelos autores teatrais brasileiros geraram formas híbridas, \"arruinadas\" e desajustadas em relação aos modelos originais. Consideramos que tal importação, assolada por um processo histórico também ele altamente contraditório e desigual, gerou entre nós diversas manifestações teatrais fraturadas, que poderiam ser contempladas por um conceito ampliado de tragédia. Procuraremos identificar, nestes momentos decisivos, diversas manifestações de uma certa dialética trágica que, não obstante sua diversidade, poderia caracterizar esse processo de formação como capaz de gerar obras tão dilaceradas quanto o tecido social que lhes corresponde. / This thesis on the history of dramaturgy in Brazil explores the idea of formation, inspired by Antonio Candido\'s work Formação da Literatura Brasileira (Brazilian\'s Literature Formation), which is known in the national literary field for defining the ambivalence that exists in our cultural constitution process, and is characterized by the influence of imported artistic forms imbalanced with local historical realities. We seek to trace the development of a national dramaturgy, identifying the boundaries and advances in the acclimation process of European forms and genres, by selecting key analytical pieces, namely works and authors considered to be \"turning points\". We hypothesize that these decisive moments are the ones influenced by the European concepts of bourgeois drama, modern drama and epictheater formulated by the critic Peter Szondi; by incorporating such concepts, Brazilian playwrights have generated hybrid forms, \"ruined\" and misfits of the original models. This thesis considers how such importation - coupled with a highly contradictory and uneven historical background - has generated amongst us several fractured theatrical manifestations that could be categorized under a broader concept of tragedy. We will seek to identify, from these decisive moments, indications of a certain tragic dialectic and how it, not withstanding its own diversity, could characterize this formation process capable of generating new works as lacerated as the social fabric to which they correspond.