This thesis explores the role of metaphor in the construction of early modern English national identity in the dramatic writing of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The metaphorical associations of character names and their imagined native or foreign stage settings helped model to English audiences and readers not only their own national community, but also ways in which the representation of collective ‘Englishness’ might involve self-estrangement. The main body of the thesis comprises three case studies: Cleopatra, Kent and Christendom. These topographies -- personal, local and regional -- illustrate how metaphorical complexes shifted against both an evolving body of literary texts and under pressure from changing historical contexts, variously defining individual selves against the collective political nation. Each section explores inter-textual connections between theatrical metaphors and contemporary English non-dramatic texts, placing these within a wider European context, and ends by discussing a relevant play by Shakespeare (Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear and Cymbeline respectively). The first case study examines ways in which Cleopatra was used as a metaphor to define individual against collective identity. I shall suggest that such Oriental self-alienation might be seen as enabling; Cleopatran identities allow English writers, readers and audiences to imagine aesthetic alternatives to public identities. The second case study looks at the idea of Kent as an emblematic identity that both preserved local peculiarity while providing a metaphor for collective English identity. Writers use Kentish ambiguity to explore discontinuities and uncertainties within the emerging political nation. The third case study examines the idea of Christendom, used as an imaginary geography to bridge the gap between individual and political identities. I suggest that attempts to map Christendom to literal territorial coordinates might be resisted in ways that produced, again, alternative, non-national literary identities.

Nous examinons d’abord les aspects de la souveraineté politique sur la scène shakespearienne. À la lumière des analyses consacrées par Walter Benjamin au drame baroque, en 1928, et de la réaction de Carl Schmitt dans Hamlet ou Hécube (1956), nous montrons que Shakespeare met en scène la mortalité des corps politiques et la souveraineté nouvelle de l’intrigant dans le temps terrestre. Sommé de maîtriser l’art et le tempo de l’intrigue, le Prince est néanmoins impuissant à empêcher la décomposition de l’État. En prenant appui sur le drame élisabéthain, notamment sur le vertige mélancolique et sceptique d’Hamlet, nous interrogeons alors l’effort contemporain en vue de l’ordre et de la synchronisation dans la cité. La théorie hobbesienne de la représentation politique et juridique moderne rompt avec la conception mystique de l’unité politique et toute écriture inspirée des lois, tandis que la scène civile y est dédiée à la paix du commerce entre les individus afin de garantir les conditions d’une autonomie réelle dans la sphère privée. Réciproquement, cette autonomie doit pérenniser les solutions à la mélancolie et au scepticisme conceptualisées dans Léviathan. Tout en entérinant la tragédie de l’existence humaine et de tout savoir déjà mise en scène par Shakespeare, Léviathan évite d’emblée l’exaltation schmittienne ainsi que la violence « pure » logée, selon Benjamin, dans l’état d’exception de la subjectivité. À travers les spectres qui, chez Hobbes, n’ont plus droit de cité, la scène shakespearienne défait cependant les mécanismes de l’ordre et de la synchronisation continus, cela sans congédier le droit ni le projet de l’autonomie. / First, we examine the aspects of the political sovereignty on the Shakespearean stage. In the light of Walter Benjamin’s Origin of the German baroque drama (1928) and of Carl Schmitt’s answer to Benjamin in Hamlet or Hecuba (1956), we show that Shakespeare stages the mortality of the political bodies and the new sovereignty of the plotter. Urged to master the art and the tempo of the plot, the prince is nonetheless unable to prevent the decomposition of the state. Then, drawing on the Elizabethan drama, and especially on Hamlet, we question the contemporary effort towards order and synchronization within the city. Hobbes’s theory of political and juridical representation breaks with the mystical conception of political unity and with any inspired legislation, whereas the civil scene is dedicated to the peace between individuals in order to ensure the possibility of a real autonomy in the private sphere. Reciprocally, this autonomy must consolidate the solutions to the problems of melancholy and skepticism conceptualized in Leviathan. While endorsing the tragedy of human condition and of knowledge already put on stage by Shakespeare, Leviathan prevents Schmitt’s exaltation as well as the « pure » violence which, according to Benjamin, lies in the subject’s state of exception. Yet, through the ghosts that Leviathan cannot tolerate within the public sphere, the Shakespearean stage unravels the mechanisms of perpetual order and synchronization without rejecting the law and the project of autonomy.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T19:32:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Seidl.pdf: 1488767 bytes, checksum: 0bd757518f92f78fba55bac5524e18fe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-11-10 / The objective of this dissertation was to investigate the ways in which Elizabethan professional theatre practice was, at the same time, a product and a producer of historical changes. Following the construction of London s first purpose-built playhouse in 1576, theatre slowly became a lucrative business run by full-time professionals. Soon after this historical development, the professional companies suffered constant attacks. These claimed that plays propagated sin and idleness among those who watched or took part in them. Through the analysis of the anti-theatrical writings and laws produced between 1576 and 1603, we observed the nature of the changes in theatrical practice in London and questioned the motives behind the attacks against the stage. We found that the process of professionalization of the London companies incorporated many of the social changes at work at the time. However, the new theatres created new social spaces in which transgressive social practices found their place beyond the City s control. Therefore, the professional theatre played an active role in making these new social values visible / O objetivo desta dissertação foi investigar as formas pelas quais a prática teatral profissional elisabetana foi, ao mesmo tempo, produto e produtor de mudanças históricas. Após a construção do primeiro teatro permanente de Londres em 1576, o teatro aos poucos se tornou um negócio lucrativo administrado por profissionais. Logo após este desenvolvimento histórico, as companhias profissionais sofreram ataques constantes. Estes afirmavam que peças teatrais propagavam o pecado e o ócio entre as pessoas que assistiam ou participavam nelas. Por meio da análise dos tratados e leis antiteatrais produzidas entre 1576 e 1603, nós observamos a natureza das mudanças na prática teatral em Londres e questionamos os motivos por trás dos ataques contra o teatro. Nós percebemos que o processo de profissionalização das companhias londrinas incorporou várias mudanças sociais que estavam em curso na época. Entretanto, os novos teatros criaram novos espaços sociais nos quais práticas sociais transgressoras acharam seu lugar fora do controle da Cidade. Portanto, o teatro profissional desempenhou um papel ativo ao dar visibilidade a estes novos valores sociais

My thesis argues that textually embedded intimacy and exclusivity between men opens up ethical problems concerning the use of education and persuasive powers—the ability to reconfigure vice as virtue, to argue a case for transgressions, and to navigate political, economic, and social spheres for personal self-advancement. My argument is based first on the proposition that masculine elite friendship in the early modern period is situated in specific pedagogical practices, engagement with particular rhetorical manuals and classical texts, and manipulation of texts which determine the affectionate, ‘textual', nature of these relationships. From this, I propose, second, that a hermeneutic process of rhetorical and poetic composition and exclusionary understanding is embedded within these textual relationships. From these two propositions, I analyse the textual surface of homosocial relationships in order to ask questions about ethical dilemmas concerning the forms of power they represent. How can an enclosed system of affection be useful for political, social, or financial advancement by making a vice (self-interest) of a virtue (fidelity), a dubious idea in the early modern period? How are homosocial networks developed and depicted through an engagement with their own textuality? Are they shown as transgressive and dangerous in further marginalizing those who are not privy to the system of textual exchange between men? The creation of homosocial male friendships is predicated on the idea that there are shared texts and methodologies for internalizing ideas from classical sources (imitatio) and for using these as starting points for the creation of arguments (inventio) to suit social, political, and even domestic situations. I focus on fictitious relationships developed in early modern English drama—as playwrights represent masculine discourse, textual knowledge, and rhetorical techniques. The friendships and fellowships in these dramatic productions contain questions about the use of masculine networks in socio-political and economic navigation.

La légende nationale élaborée autour de Sir Philip Sidney [1554-1586] à la période élisabéthaine a contribué à dissimuler de nombreux aspects de l’expérience visuelle de « l’icône culturelle » du protestantisme anglais. En effet, les monuments picturaux érigés à sa mémoire ont gravé dans la rigidité du marbre les lignes d’un régime représentatif européen à vocation humaniste et exemplaire qui a échoué à reproduire les traits du courtisan. Au cours des deux dernières décennies du XXe siècle, le développement des visual culture studies a permis de démontrer la friabilité des socles taxinomiques de la matière visuelle élisabéthaine en élargissant la notion d’image à des domaines jusque-là négligés [imprese, miniatures, médaillons de cire]. Mais bien que des formes alternatives de visualité aient ainsi pu être envisagées, ces nouvelles lectures de la mimésis sidneyenne ne sont pas parvenues à s’extraire d’une compréhension ethnocentrée de la perspective. Loin d’offrir le reflet insulaire d’un archaïsme pictural exotique, les ornements dédiés à ou conçus par Sidney s’inscrivent pourtant au cœur de l’histoire de rencontres visuelles entre le « propre » et le « barbare » qui mettent en lumière toute l’incertitude étiologique et généalogique des dernières années du règne des Tudor. Les effets de rémanence du Kitab al-manazir [De Aspectibus] d’Ibn al-Haytham [Alhacen] dans la compréhension des « intentions » du visible élisabéthain seront dès lors envisagés comme l’aspect le plus lumineux de la dimension anthropologique du geste mimétique sidneyen. / The national legend surrounding Sir Philip Sidney [1554-1586] in the Elizabethan era has played a significant part in concealing many aspects of the courtier’s visual experience. The marble fixity of pictorial monuments erected in memory of England’s favourite Protestant « cultural icon » has mostly failed to register his features. This has been made apparent through the development of visual culture studies. Since emerging in the 1980’s, this interdisciplinary field has led to the laying bare of the brittle material of Elizabethan visual taxonomies, by encompassing within the ‘pictorial’ frame new kinds of images [imprese, limnings, wax medallions]. Yet, although opening up onto alternative visual modes, the latest forays into Sidneyan mimesis have remained firmly rooted in an ethnocentric approach of perspective. Conversely, far from reflecting an exotic, insular or archaic pictorial response to visual culture, Sidney’s ornaments -whether created by or dedicated to him- draw on encounters between ‘gentle’ and ‘barbarous’ visual histories, thus highlighting Tudor England’s ‘etiological uncertainty’. As a result, the many aspects of Ibn al-Haytham [Alhacen]’s Kitab al-mananazir [De Aspectibus] transpiring through Elizabethan optics will emerge as central to the building up and understanding of the anthropological dimension of Sidney’s mimesis.

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This thesis is an examination of the theoretical concepts of Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) and their relation to the Elizabethan theatre. I propose that the dramas of the age of Shakespeare and the environment in which they were produced should be seen as an integral part of the Theatre of Cruelty and essential to its very understanding. The development of the English Renaissance public theatre was at the mercy of periods of outbreaks and abatements of plague, a powerful force that Artaud considers to be the double of the theatre. The claim for regeneration as an outcome of the plague, a phenomenon causing intense destruction, is very specific to Artaud. The cruel and violent images associated with the plague also feature in the theatre, as do its destructive and regenerative powers. The plague and its surrounding atmosphere contain both the grotesque and sublime elements of life Artaud wished to capture in his theatre. His theory of cruelty is part of a larger investigation into the connection between spectacle, violence, and sacrifice explored by Mikhail Bakhtin, René Girard, and Georges Bataille.

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