This thesis re-examines Shakespeare’s creation of tragic character through the concept of ‘arrivals’. What arrives is not an ‘individual’ but what I call a ‘subject’, which is a diffused dramatic process of arriving, rather than a self-contained entity that arrives in a final form. Not all characters are ‘subjects’. A subject only arrives through dramatic ‘events’ that rupture the existing structures of the play-world and the play-text. The generators of these irruptions are found equally in the happenings of plot and in changes of poetic intensity and form. The ‘subject’ is thus a supra- individual irruption that configures new forms of language, structure, and action. Accordingly, I explain why scrupulous historicism’s need for nameable continuums is incommensurate to the irruptive quality of Shakespearean character. The concepts of ‘process’, ‘subject’ and ‘event’ are informed by a variety of thinkers, most notably the contemporary French philosopher Alain Badiou. Badiou develops an ‘evental’ model of subjectivity in which the subject emerges in fidelity to a ‘truth- event’, which breaks into a situation from its ‘void’. Also important is the process- orientated philosophy of Bergson and Whitehead, which stresses that an entity is not a stable substance but a process of becoming. The underlying connection between the philosophers I embrace – also including the likes of Žižek, Kierkegaard, Latour, Benjamin, and Christian thinkers such as Saint Paul and Luther – is that they establish a creative alternative to the deadlock between treating the subject as either a stable substance (humanism) or a decentred product of its place in the world (postmodernism). The subject is not a pre-existing entity but something that comes to be. It is not reducible to its cultural and linguistic circumstances but is precisely what exceeds those circumstances. Such an excessive creativity is what gives rise to Shakespeare’s subjects and, I argue, underpins the continuing force of his drama. But it also produces profound dangers. In Shakespeare, ‘events’ consistently expose subjects to uncertainty, catastrophe, and horror. And these dangers imperil both the subject and the relationship between Shakespeare and the affirmative philosophy of the event.

Cross-gender casting (i.e. the casting of female performers for male parts and vice versa) of plays by William Shakespeare is not a scarce phenomenon and is getting more and more popular in the recent years. In spite of the frequent claim of the theatre-makers and critics that it is in fact a gender blind casting, where the gender of the performer does not matter, the thesis attempts to prove that, in fact, it is not the case. This is exemplified on three most frequently staged and also most commonly cross-gender cast plays: Hamlet, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet. Via these examples the thesis shows the variability of approaches to cross-gender casting and the differences in realization. In the first chapter, the key terminology is defined, in order to avoid confusion, discussing the differences between cross-dressing, travesty and cross-gender casting. That is followed by subchapters in which the basic frame of thought is suggested, building on Judith Butler's deconstruction of gender and the concept of gender performativity. The last subchapter of this section deals with the history of cross-gender casting, including the Elizabethan all-male staging tradition. The next three chapters are then devoted to each of the plays, analyzing the possible interpretive keys and motivations for a cross-gender cast...

[pt] A presente dissertação tem como proposta trabalhar com cinema e o ensino de história: com o cinema e suas possibilidades pedagógicas para o ensino de história, frente a turmas de ensino médio. Mais especificamente com títulos comerciais e de apelo juvenil; filmes na maior parte conhecidos e apreciados pelo nosso público alvo. Trata-se, na verdade, de proposição ativa que visa a minimização de um gap pedagógico entre o mundo escolar e o mundo juvenil; entre o espaço educacional institucional e o espaço extra escolar. A ideia não é a de selecionar películas que abordem temas/períodos históricos e empregá-las como complemento, ilustração, fornecimento de ambientação temática e imagética. Isso já é feito, há algum tempo (e consiste em procedimento altamente válido, aliás). Não obstante, o que propomos são provocações interpretativas, com suporte analítico histórico, para filmes de apelo juvenil. Nesse sentido, a película Meu namorado é um zumbi (Warm bodies, EUA, Jonathan Levine, 2013) é tomada como estudo de referência/exemplo. Por intermédio de um approach analítico que leva em conta texto, contexto e as especificidades da linguagem cinematográfica, estabelecemos três possibilidades para o emprego pedagógico dessa obra. Uma relativa aos vínculos explícitos com a obra Shakespeariana (Romeu e Julieta), outra sobre o tema subjacente de uma saga humanizante e, finalmente, sobre possibilidades metafóricas que possam indicar a problematização de temas contemporâneos (marginalização social, multiculturalismo, imigração, etc.). Por fim, com a elaboração de um guia pedagógico para o trabalho com filmes comerciais de apelo juvenil, indicamos a viabilidade (e os procedimentos básicos) de emprego semelhante para outras tantas obras com potencial educativo. / [en] This text proposes to work with cinema and history s study. We focus on the pedagogical possibilities of the cinema to improve the study of History. Our propose has as its target the public of our schools: the classes of the three years of the medium teaching. We intend to demonstrate the pedagogical possibilities of commercial films produced for the youth. Those films are made, consumed and appreciated by a large public. We bet those productions can be worked with classical topics of history discipline. That could be a positive proposition in order to minimize a pedagogical gap between a school and a non-school world; between a formal educational space and an amusement space. We do not want to select and use films that approaches historical themes or historical periods as an illustration, complement or to show some ambiance of an era. This has been done (and well done) for some time. Nonetheless, we propose provocatives interpretations for films of youth appeal. In this sense, the film Warm bodies (USA, Jonathan Levine, 2013) is taken as reference/example. Through an analytical approach that takes into account text, context and the specificities of cinematographic language, we establish three links for the pedagogical use of the film. The first one is related to the explicit connection with the Shakespearean work (Romeo and Juliet). The second one, deal with the theme of a humanizing saga, and finally on metaphorical possibilities that could indicate the problematization of contemporary issues (social marginalization, multiculturalism, immigration etc.). Finally, with the elaboration of a pedagogical guide for the work with commercial films of youth appeal, we indicate the viability (and basic procedures) of similar employment for other works with similar educational potential.

Renaissance and Baroque drama offers a view into gender dynamics of the time. What is seen is a development in the allowed expression and manifestation of desire by females, beginning from a point of near silence, and arriving at points of verbal statement and even physical violence. Specifically, in La Mandragola by Niccolò Machiavelli, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, and Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega, there appears a chronological progression, whereby using desire and its expression as a metric in conjunction with modern concepts of gender and sexuality to measure a shift in relation to what is and is not allowed to be expressed by women. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a musical work of one of the world's most favorite composers of the 20th century - Sergej Prokofiev. Even though I would like to address all his pieces, given the extensiveness of his work and my profession as a pianist and a pedagogue, I decided to focus only on the pieces for solo piano. I detail each piano piece in a catalogue organized by opus number. My analysis focuses on compositions, eventually on cycles, which can be somehow beneficial to us. Beneficial, in this sense means exposure to pieces with variety of character, use of melody and eventually pieces from a various work periods. Another condition during a selection of pieces for my dissertation was various levels of difficulty. The majority of my thesis is dedicated to the piano sonatas. Although they are not very long, they belong to the piano masterpieces forever. Further, I mention less performed Etudes, Op. 2 and Visions fugitives, Op. 22, and on the other hand well known Suit from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75. The music for children is represented in my analysis by one piece only - Children's Songs, Op. 65. Prokofiev wrote nearly 40 opuses for piano, which makes up almost a third of his work. That is a remarkable number and these pieces are worth interest.