Typescript. Errata slip inserted. Bibliography: leaves 360-385.

Literary and feminist theory have recently begun to recognize William Shakespeare's character of Juliet as a possible feminist heroine, but communicating this interpretation on film will be complicated. Not only will the film need to deal with the issues of adaptation that come with moving any play onto film, but the finished product will also need to avoid the objectification of the female form. An investigation of literary theory, adaptation theory, and feminist film theory reveals that, although this is a formidable task, the original text offers enough power to overcome any obstacle of communication. Once the earlier literary criticism of A. C. Bradley gives way to feminist literary theory which offers a more empowering interpretation of the character of Juliet, it seems clear that this character could be a powerful cinematic heroine. At this point, it becomes relevant to acknowledge the problems involved in the transfer of text to cinema and the adaptation theories of Andre Bazin, Susan Sontag, and others become applicable. Adding further dimension to the film discussion is Laura Mulvey's theory of "the masculine gaze" as well as Tania Modleski's theories on feminism as it applies to mass culture and audience interpretation. The theoretical discussion suggests a unique combination of theories with which to investigate the three best-known Romeo and Juliet adaptations (George Cukor, 1936; Franco Zeffirelli, 1968; Baz Luhrmann, 1996) Each of these films uses the medium of cinema to communicate a specific interpretation of the original text. Although none emphasize a strong, decisive heroine, they each present different options for portraying the character of Juliet and offer valuable insight in their moments of oppression as well as empowerment. Applying this blend of theories to the specific films leads to the idea that future filmmakers could take all the theories into consideration and learn from these previous works to produce a main-stream adaptation of Romeo and Juliet which emphasizes the strength and agency of the main female character. The power of Shakespeare's Juliet is a prolific area of the text which, when explored on screen, has the ability to utilize film as an ally to unite feminist theory with popular culture. / Graduation date: 2001

The study of the social dimensions of Shakespeare's art is represented by the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, C.L. Barber, Robert Weimann, Edward Berry, and Michael Bristol. Their work analyzes the background in Elizabethan social practices and popular dramatic traditions that contribute to the form, structure, and meaning of Shakespeare's comedies. The purpose of this study is to review the work of these authors, apply their insights into three productions of A Midsummer Niqht's Dream, and suggest further implications of their work. A review of these authors' major premises provides the context for analysis of three productions of A Midsummer Niqht's Dream: those of Max Reinhardt, Peter Hall, and, Joseph Papp. This study suggests that the popular festive tradition created a dialogic mode in Shakespeare's art and accounts for important features of our aesthetic experience of the plays. / Graduation date: 1994

"Shakespeare on the Verge: Rhetoric, Tragedy, and the Paradox of Place" describes the ideological geographies of Renaissance England and reads the ways "place" was rhetorically constructed in two of Shakespeare's late tragedies. By ideological geographies I mean the way in which Renaissance men and women understood spatially the constitution of their world--their spatialized "habits of thought." These habits were then undergoing a change from seeing the world as a vertical hierarchy of interrelated and dependent places to seeing it as a horizontal array of discrete places related to one another in a linear manner. Working from the theories of Agamben, Burke, Foucault, and Ong, I argue that Shakespeare constructs a paradox of place in which hierarchically elevated places subsume inferior ones and thereby double them. The paradigmatic example of this phenomenon is the king's mobile court, known at the time as the "Verge," which subsumed the places, the actual palaces and castles, of the king's subjects as it progressed across the kingdom. This phenomenon is paradoxical because, although the king's superior place subsumed those below it, it was always dependent on those inferior places, both logically (there can be no king without his subjects) and materially (as the king traveled, his household relied on the provisions supplied by subjects along the way). This paradox leads Shakespeare to double certain dramatic characters and their environments. It also leads him to set up oppositions between places constructed through violent means and places constructed through the "violence" of rhetoric. In my chapter on King Lear (1605), I argue that Edmund should be read as Lear's double, a doubling made manifest especially in the characters' stage movements as they effectively change places with one another. In Coriolanus (1608), I argue that its hero rejects his double, the Plebeian class of Rome, but that he eventually attempts to reconcile with them in large measure by changing his use of rhetoric. In my reading of these plays, as in my description of Renaissance ideological geographies, I aim to revise the way people look at place on the Shakespearean stage and at the complex interplay in them between physical violence and rhetorical action. / text

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The incest prohibition, though ostensibly "universal," has inspired a wide range of explanations and definitions both within and between cultures. Intense debate sprung up around the incest taboo during the matrimonially tumultuous reign of Henry VIII, leading to the great interest in this theme, which flourished on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stages. Although Shakespeare contributed a number of works to the incest canon, King Lear does not treat the incest motif overtly such that many critics have ignored its crucial role in that play. A synthetic theoretical approach is useful in exploring the wide-reaching implications of father-daughter love in Lear, which challenges the parameters of the incest prohibition. / King Lear's effort to obstruct the marriage of Cordelia in the first scene constitutes a violation of the incest prohibition according to Levi-Strauss's notion of exogamy. To this violation, Cordelia contributes her belief that marriage requires only partial withdrawal of love from her father. Lear's unfulfilled love for his daughter Cordelia, whom he figures into wife and mother roles, exhibits oedipal traits and seeks gratification in Goneril and Regan. Lear experiences their "unnatural" refusal of his desires as emasculating sexual rejection, which manifests as the disease and guilt of transgression. He understands virtuous love as fatally tainted by sexual desire; the theme of love-as-death gains momentum. The tempest emerges as an agent of justice and punishment. Lear and Cordelia's reunion reasserts the themes of adulterous love and love-as-death, foreshadowing their shared death. Their subsequent capture introduces an expanded notion of the father-daughter relationship, including the possibility of conjugal love, which is consummated in their marriage in death.

Most people place their sincerest hopes for emotional fulfillment on a rewarding family life. The "loved ones" that constitute our nuclear and extended familial worlds are the primary beneficiaries of our affections and of the fruits of our labors. In return for the primacy we accord our family members, we expect their behavior to demonstrate their loyalty to the clan. However, at a certain point obligations to the family can conflict with the needs of the individual. In this thesis I examine how filial duties influence the plights of the tragic heroines in Sophocles's Antigone and Shakespeare's King Lear. Both Antigone and Cordelia organize their lives around the virtue of family honor, and yet the strength of these commitments is not sufficient to spare them from their respective, calamitous ends. Their unwavering dedication to the sanctity of family bonds leaves them susceptible, as individuals, to great harm.