This thesis has as its aim the exploration of a figure forgotten in the dramatic text of Shakespeare and Renaissance painting: the garden snail. Taking as its point of departure the emergence of the gastropod object/subject in the text of King Lear as well as its iconic interface in Bellini's painting Allegory of Falsehood (circa 1490), this study sets out to follow the particular path traced by the snail through the oeuvre. From the central scene in which the metaphor of the snail and or" its shell is specifically made manifest when Lear discovers, in a raging storm, the spectacle of Edgar disguised as Poor Tom coming out of his shelter (III.3.6-9) to the monster, this fiend displaying, on the cliffs of Dover, "horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea" (IV.6. 71), this thesis is the trace of a narrative - of a journey of the gaze - during the course of which the cryptic question of the gastropod - "Why a Snail [ ... ]?" (I.5.26) - will not cease to be developed and transformed. Incorporating a wide-ranging post-structuralist critique, the study aims to bring to light the particular functions of this "revealing detail" in both its textual and visual dimension so as to put forward a new and innovatory understanding of the tragedy of King Lear.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:617807 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Gleyzon, Francois-Xavier |
| Publisher | Lancaster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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