Erfurt, Pädag. Hochsch., Diss., 1999.

Afhandling--Aarhus, 1994. / Résumé en anglais. Bibliogr. p. [432]-445. Index.

Th. 3e cycle--Théâtre angl.--Paris 3, 1986.

No description available.

[No abstract available] / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

'Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare's British Plays' demonstrates how Shakespeare participates in an early modern 'discourse of legitimacy' as described by Robert Zaller. This thesis, however, proposes an interrelated discourse of illegitimacy that is of equal importance to the discourse of legitimacy. A continuum or spectrum of legitimacy values is hypothesised, and seventeenth century optical illusions known as the curious perspective are used as a visual model that defines the inseparable nature of illegitimacy and legitimacy. Illegitimacy was a state traditionally defined as restrictive, and stereotyped as stigmatised by historians. Examination of the situation of early modern illegitimates in England, however, suggests a more inclusive attitude to illegitimates than has been previously acknowledged.The plays under discussion are under studied as a group; the thesis examines the British-set history and romance plays, defining them as 'British plays'. This is because one of the central implications of the discourse of (il)legitimacy is that it forms an evaluation of nationhood in early modern England and Britain. Using recent reconsiderations of national identity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this thesis identifies a strong national sentiment in Shakespeare's drama. The change from an Elizabethan English monarchy to a Jacobean British one instigated a reconsideration of what national identity might entail, using the discourse of legitimacies and illegitimacies to evaluate this developing concept. 'Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare's British Plays' identifies how these discourses also link to other related themes in the British plays. The concept of sovereignty, as the thesis title suggests, is strongly linked to ideas of legitimacy and illegitimacy, with examples of the discourse used in this context drawn from Shakespeare's works and a wider range of texts. Identification of the sovereign with national allegiance, to a certain degree, links these themes, yet Shakespeare also dramatises an independent national sentiment in the British plays, revealing developing nationhood onstage. National sentiment also infuses another area in which the discourse of (il)legitimacy is used by Shakespeare; the legal debates of the era are reflected in the British plays; a contemporary conflict between common and civil law, and the aim of many lawyers to rediscover an ancient constitution of Britain, especially in the area of patrilinear inheritance, is acknowledged throughout in Shakespeare's use of legitimacy images and metaphors. As 'metaphors' suggests, illegitimacy is an increasingly conceptual issue in the thesis. Shakespeare uses ideas of illegitimacy to inform many areas; in particular a kind of validity or truth. A chapter on metaphorical illegitimacy demonstrates how illegitimacy and legitimacy language is suggestive of other issues. The invalidity of a usurped kingdom, a false kingship, is negotiated through illegitimacy discourses in Richard II, as the attempt to validate leadership in the second tetralogy is articulated with a discourse of totalising masculine legitimacy. 'Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare's British Plays' works within a contextual framework to locate the language and concepts Shakespeare dramatises in a wider environment, reflecting the issues of law, sovereignty and nation that existed in early modern English and British society.

acase@tulane.edu / The Western philosophical tradition arguably begins as a dispute over the status of poetry. In the Republic Socrates characterizes the relationship between poetry and philosophy as an “ancient quarrel,” and yet this characterization is challenged as much by Plato’s use of the dialogic form as by the frequency of his reflections on Greek poetry. Why write poetically and so often about poetry if it’s the antithesis of philosophy? This thesis, “The Idiot Soul of Wit: On the Genius of Hamlet and Ion,” examines the relation between philosophy and poetry through interpreting Plato’s Ion and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Not only can these works be understood to share a similar generic form—Plato’s dialogues are closer to dramatic poetry than a scientific treatise—but they are both concerned with the significance of form in particular. This shows up in a twofold way. First, both have a reflexive plot that mirrors the psychology of the titular character, which plays out as a reciprocity between action and speech, since for each speech is the principle action. Second, they employ a similar frame: Hamlet turns on revenge and soliloquy, Ion yokes together war and poetry. Thus structurally both aim to synthesize action and reflection, but frame their divergence in the starkest terms: violence requires no words; poetry requires no deeds. The same duality is exhibited by their respective lead characters, who play the double role of actor and spectator: Ion is asked to reflect upon his skill in performance; Hamlet attempts to commit the self-aware act. Ultimately both fail, yet failure illuminates the core proposition of each work: if we cannot know ourselves, we may yet grasp what allows us to pose the self as a question. Through examining these texts, this study confronts the radical privacy of the self that necessitates poetic language, and the dialectic by virtue of which self-knowledge is possible to the extent that it is—which, given the centrality of self-knowledge to Socratic philosophy, indicates why Plato can neither win nor forfeit the contest with poetry. / 1 / Charlie Gustafson-Barrett

Shakespeare's Cleopatra is a character of magnificent aspect, a puzzling paradox of magnetic intensity, an intensified diversity unmatched by any other Cleopatra in literary history. Although she was not his invention, Shakespeare made of her a living woman, believable in spite of her incredulous behavior.

No description available.

No description available.