The status of ‘Shakespeare’ is an incredibly intricate cultural construct, which is influenced by circumstantially contingent hierarchies of value, academic discourses, institutional processes, educational curricula, and media techniques. Having explored the context in which Shakespeare currently stands as an icon through the review of existing scholarship, this thesis employs a combined methodology to facilitate an investigation of some of the ways in which the playwright and his works are significant in contemporary culture, by specifically examining three late-1990s Shakespearean films and some particular types of audience responses. The case studies – Romeo + Juliet, Shakespeare in Love and 10 Things I Hate About You – are each analysed, according to their individual content and context, as cinematic products, which are understood in relation to Shakespeare and also many other cultural frameworks. It is acknowledged that Shakespeare has a particularly potent and established iconicity within academia and the education system, and it is argued that this position informs, but is also modified and challenged by, the filmic conceptualisations. These observations are enriched and developed by the findings of empirical audience research. Questionnaires were used to elicit a mixture of quantitative and qualitative information from secondary school teachers of Shakespeare, and from first year English and/or media undergraduates, about their experiences and opinions of Shakespeare in contemporary culture, especially Shakespearean films. Patterns identifiable in the data generated confirm that cinematic interpretations can transform the cultural currency of Shakespeare, reducing the distance between young people and the text by using familiar modes of address, but also point to tensions stemming from a disjunction of conventional evaluative criteria and the diverse ways in which Shakespeare now functions in mass culture. This work therefore contributes to debates about Shakespeare’s cultural status by examining the complex processes of negotiation of meaning that are discernable in these instances.

The Imprints of Performance is motivated by a longstanding interest in the fundamental interpretive challenges that face readers of printed plays. Reading a playtext is a means of dramatic realization that is absolutely unlike live performance, and it is not without good reason that theoretical formulations of page and stage tend to stress the incompatibility of the two modes. Without denying that printed plays distort and fragment performance practice, my dissertation negotiates an intractable debate by shifting attention to points of intersection in the rich printed and performance histories of Shakespeare's plays. I detail how editors of Shakespeare encode for information that could otherwise only be communicated in performance, how, via ancillaries such as critical introductions, emended stage directions, and performance commentary, editors facilitate a reader's ability to imagine performances. Central to my engagements with the informational structures of the edited page is the term performancescape, a textual representation of performance potential that gives relative shape and stability to what is dynamic and multifarious. I deploy performancescape in relation to editions ranging from the earliest extant quartos and folios to digital editions powered by hypertext. In analyzing formative editions from Shakespeare's long textual history, I highlight instances where the malleability of the printed page renders awareness of performance an integral, and in some ways unavoidable, condition of the reading experience.

The Imprints of Performance is motivated by a longstanding interest in the fundamental interpretive challenges that face readers of printed plays. Reading a playtext is a means of dramatic realization that is absolutely unlike live performance, and it is not without good reason that theoretical formulations of page and stage tend to stress the incompatibility of the two modes. Without denying that printed plays distort and fragment performance practice, my dissertation negotiates an intractable debate by shifting attention to points of intersection in the rich printed and performance histories of Shakespeare's plays. I detail how editors of Shakespeare encode for information that could otherwise only be communicated in performance, how, via ancillaries such as critical introductions, emended stage directions, and performance commentary, editors facilitate a reader's ability to imagine performances. Central to my engagements with the informational structures of the edited page is the term performancescape, a textual representation of performance potential that gives relative shape and stability to what is dynamic and multifarious. I deploy performancescape in relation to editions ranging from the earliest extant quartos and folios to digital editions powered by hypertext. In analyzing formative editions from Shakespeare's long textual history, I highlight instances where the malleability of the printed page renders awareness of performance an integral, and in some ways unavoidable, condition of the reading experience.

The Imprints of Performance is motivated by a longstanding interest in the fundamental interpretive challenges that face readers of printed plays. Reading a playtext is a means of dramatic realization that is absolutely unlike live performance, and it is not without good reason that theoretical formulations of page and stage tend to stress the incompatibility of the two modes. Without denying that printed plays distort and fragment performance practice, my dissertation negotiates an intractable debate by shifting attention to points of intersection in the rich printed and performance histories of Shakespeare's plays. I detail how editors of Shakespeare encode for information that could otherwise only be communicated in performance, how, via ancillaries such as critical introductions, emended stage directions, and performance commentary, editors facilitate a reader's ability to imagine performances. Central to my engagements with the informational structures of the edited page is the term performancescape, a textual representation of performance potential that gives relative shape and stability to what is dynamic and multifarious. I deploy performancescape in relation to editions ranging from the earliest extant quartos and folios to digital editions powered by hypertext. In analyzing formative editions from Shakespeare's long textual history, I highlight instances where the malleability of the printed page renders awareness of performance an integral, and in some ways unavoidable, condition of the reading experience. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Stand-up comedy represents a particularly potent form of rhetorical and performative criticism because of its potential duality. On the surface, a comedy set can look breezy and entertaining while containing a sharper, more critical message underneath. Like a fluffy, besprinkled cupcake hiding a potent antibiotic, stand-up comedy offers potentially healing insight under the cover of whimsy. Comedians have always utilized their performances to skewer those in power, but an increasing number have taken to the stage recently to address a particularly insidious social and cultural malady. The stigma associated with mental illness continues to limit the opportunities of those living with mental disorders, meaning comedians utilizing their performances to push back against this stigma represent a significant form of anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy. In this dissertation, I argue that stand-up comedy is a uniquely subversive and resistant communicative act that enables performers to combat the stigma associated with mental illness. Grounding my discussion in literature about mental illness and two of the most common disorders, anxiety and depression, I construct an original performance criticism evaluative framework derived from three anti-stigma-advocacy techniques: protest, educate, and contact. While these techniques offer guidance for any kind of anti-stigma advocacy, I draw them into the realm of anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy by utilizing my framework in a performance criticism of stand-up performances by Aparna Nancherla, Maria Bamford, Bo Burnham, and Chris Gethard—four comics known for discussing their mental health onstage. Moreover, I weave autoethnographic responses to each performance throughout my analysis to showcase the power of these cases of comedic anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy to alter my perspective on my own anxiety.Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates the potential of stand-up comedy as anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy by chronicling my own growth in response to the work of these comedians. It also identifies aspects of stand-up that may be potentially useful to other kinds of anti-stigma advocacy. Additionally, the framework created and used in this dissertation provides both a rubric for future anti-stigma performance criticism and a blueprint for creating anti-stigma performance. Stand-up comedy is a significant performance genre and stand-up comedians can launch biting critiques that cultivate greater cultural citizenship for the marginalized and disenfranchised. A significant number of people will undoubtedly continue to spot the silly facade of stand-up comedy and look past the deeper insight, even though it can educate an audience, protest misinformation, and provide opportunities for contact between otherwise unfamiliar demographics. My effort here is to value stand-up comedy as a powerful communicative act because it has changed my life and will continue to incite change for many others. And that’s no joke.

Starting from the observation that Deuteronomy commands a tradition of performing the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32.1-43), in this dissertation I explore ways in which the performance of the Song contributes to Deuteronomy's educational program through an effect on those who perform the Song. In order to do so, I employ a performance-based approach that stresses the dynamic of re-enactment that operates in traditions of performance; I argue that performers of the Song are to be transformed as they re-enact not only the characters within the Song but also those who came before them in the history of the Song's performance, particularly YHWH and Moses, whom Deuteronomy depicts as that tradition's founders. In support of this thesis, I provide a close reading of the text of the Song (as preserved in Deuteronomy and as informed by Deuteronomy's account of its origins and subsequent history) that examines how the persona of the performer interacts with these re-enacted personas in the moment of performance. I also argue that the various composers of Deuteronomy themselves participated in the tradition of performing the Song, adducing examples from throughout the book in which certain elements originally found in the Song have been adopted, elaborated, acted out, or simply mimicked while being put to another use. / Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Starting point of the search for the purpose of 1 Timothy is the assumption of basic similarities between this letter and letter writing in Greco-Roman antiquity. This means that 1 Timothy is designed for an oral performance in front of an audience. The analysis concentrates on the so far neglected classical duties of the speaker: memoria and pronuntiatio. This means the memorized performance in front of an audience. 1 Timothy shows many mnemotechnical devices and puts certain terms in focus. This shows what expressions the audience has to memorize and what aspects show prominence. The result of this can be formulated as the purpose of 1 Timothy: Paul wants to confirm Timothy in his mandate to guard the gospel from being changed through a resolute dismissal of wrong teachings and an ethic that honours God and men. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (New Testament)

Text in German with German and English summaries / Starting point of the search for the purpose of 1 Timothy is the assumption of basic similarities between this letter and letter writing in Greco-Roman antiquity. This means that 1 Timothy is designed for an oral performance in front of an audience. The analysis concentrates on the so far neglected classical duties of the speaker: memoria and pronuntiatio. This means the memorized performance in front of an audience. 1 Timothy shows many mnemotechnical devices and puts certain terms in focus. This shows what expressions the audience has to memorize and what aspects show prominence. The result of this can be formulated as the purpose of 1 Timothy: Paul wants to confirm Timothy in his mandate to guard the gospel from being changed through a resolute dismissal of wrong teachings and an ethic that honours God and men. / Ausgangspunkt der Frage nach der Absicht des 1. Timotheus ist die Annahme, dass dieser Brief grundsätzliche Gemeinsamkeiten mit der kaiserzeitlichen Epistolographie aufweist. Demnach ist der 1. Timotheus für den mündlichen Vortrag (Performanz) vor einem Publikum konzipiert. Die Analyse konzentriert sich auf die bisher in der rhetorischen Forschung vernachlässigten klassischen Aufgaben des Redners: memoria (das Auswendiglernen) und pronuntiatio (der freie Vortrag). Dabei zeigt sich, dass im 1. Timotheus eine Vielzahl mnemotechnischer Mittel eingesetzt wird. Auch die für einen effektiven mündlichen Vortrag notwendige Hervorhebung einzelner Begriffe wird methodisch begründet und aufgezeigt. Dadurch wird deutlich, welche Punkte sich den Zuhörern einprägen sollen und welche Aspekte besonders hervorgehoben werden. Die Zusammenfassung dieser Ergebnisse wird als Absicht des 1. Timotheus formuliert: Paulus will Timotheus in seinem Auftrag bestätigen, nämlich das Evangelium vor Verfälschung zu bewahren durch ein entschiedenes Eintreten gegen falsche Lehren und eine Ethik, die Gott und den Menschen mit Ehre und Respekt begegnet. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (New Testament)