Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare and Shaw


Book Description

How can the most silent member of the family carry the message of subversion against venerated institutions of state and society? Why would two playwrights, writing 300 years apart, employ the same dramatic methods for rebelling against the establishment, when these methods are virtually ignored by their contemporaries? This book considers these and similar questions. It examines the historical similarities of the eras in which Shakespeare and Shaw wrote and then explores types of father-daughter interactions, considering each in terms of the existing power structures of society. These two dramatists draw on themes of incest, daughter sacrifice, role playing, education, and androgyny to create both active and passive daughters. The daughters literally represent a challenge to the patriarchy and metaphorically extend that challenge to such institutions as church and state. The volume argues that the father-daughter relationship was the ideal dramatic vehicle for Shakespeare and Shaw to advance their social and political agendas. By exploring larger issues through the father-daughter relationship, both playwrights were able to avoid the watchful eyes of censors and comment on such topics as the divine right of kings, filial bonds of obedience, and even regicide.




Shakespeare's Fathers and Daughters


Book Description

A theme that obsessed Shakespeare in over 20 plays from Titus Andronicus to The Tempest was the relationship between a daughter and her father. This study traces chronologically the development of this theme, relating it to the little we know of his own two daughters, and sheds new light on his exploration of the family that so dominated his approach to drama. Drawing on a lifetime's experience of playing Shakespearean roles, Oliver Ford Davies, a former university lecturer and now an Honorary Associate Artist of the RSC and Olivier Award winner, has written an engaging and deeply researched study of a topic that has intrigued him from playing Capulet in 1967, King Lear in 2002, to Polonius in 2008.




1992, Shaw and the Last Hundred Years


Book Description

In 1892 the first production of Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, heralded the birth of modern drama in the English language. One hundred years later a group of Shavians gathered to examine the significance and influence of Shaw's drama in the English-speaking world. The conference, sponsored by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, brought together theater scholars, critics, and artists from Canada, England, Ireland, and the United States. The conference also featured productions of The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet, The Man of Destiny, and Farfetched Tales, each followed by a symposium. The centennial conference not only marked the importance of the event but also stimulated new ways of regarding that historic moment, reexaminations of the significance of Shaw's plays, and explorations of their consequences. Some speakers reevaluated the genesis of the first production of Widowers' Houses and its social, cultural, and theatrical context. Some brought to bear on the subject of Shavian drama recent critical perspectives, such as feminism, deconstructionism, and the type of close textual and intertextual scrutiny seldom accorded Shaw. Others explored his impact in England, America, Ireland, and the Antipodes. Still others examined the relationship of comedy and ideas, subtext, and how this Victorian dramatist remains pertinent today. The conference concluded with a symposium that aimed to assess what might lie ahead for Shaw on page and stage in the next hundred years. This volume records the proceedings of the conference as well as reviews and the continuing checklist of Shaviana. Contributors are Peter Barnes, Charles A. Berst, Montgomery Davis, Bernard F. Dukore, Martin Esslin, Joanne E. Gates, Nicholas Grene, Christopher Innes, Katherine E. Kelly, Frederick P. W. McDowell, Rhoda Nathan, Christopher Newton, Michael O'Hara, Jean Reynolds, Irving Wardle, Stanley Weintraub, and J. L. Wisenthal.




Fathers and Sons in Shakespeare


Book Description

Introduction : interpreting Shakespeare's sons : ambivalence, rescue, and revenge -- Paternal authority and filial autonomy in Shakespeare's England -- Henry VI, part one : prototypical beginnings : the two John Talbots -- Richard II : patrilineal inheritance and the generation gap -- Henry IV, part one : Deep defiance and the rebel prince -- Henry IV, part two : the prince becomes the king, with a note on Henry V -- Hamlet : notes from the underground : paternal and filial subterfuge -- King Lear : the usurpation of fathers, and of fathers and sons -- Macbeth and the late plays : the disappearance of ambivalent sons -- Biographical coda : William Shakespeare, son of John Shakespeare -- Appendix 1 : Shakespearean fathers and sons in Edward III -- Appendix 2 : Thomas Plume's anecdote : the merry-cheeked, jest-cracking John Shakespeare, Sir John Mennes, and Sir John Falstaff




Lost Objects Of Desire


Book Description

This first book-length critical study of Jeremy Irons concentrates on his key performances and acting style. Through the analysis of some of the major screen roles in Irons’s career, such as Brideshead Revisited, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Reversal of Fortune, Swann in Love, Dead Ringers and Lolita, Mark Nicholls identifies a new masculine identity that unites them: an emblematic figure of the 1980s and 1990s presented as an alternative to the action hero or the common man. Using clear explanations of complex theoretical ideas, this book investigates Jeremy Irons’s performances through the lens of sexual inversion and social rebellion, to uncover an entirely original but recognizable screen type.




War and Words


Book Description

War and Words is a sweeping study of the profound, painful, and most significantly, defining cultural moments. Working from Homer through to Hemingway and in all traditions, some of the nation's best scholars of literature illustrate how literature and language affect not only the present but also future generations by shaping history even as it represents it. This powerful collection affirms that the humanities remain a site of the most profound reflection on human experience and historical events that have, for better and worse, shaped world civilization.




Placing the Plays of Christopher Marlowe


Book Description

Focusing upon Marlowe the playwright as opposed to Marlowe the man, the essays in this collection position the dramatist's plays within the dramaturgical, ethical, and sociopolitical matrices of his own era. The volume also examines some of the most heated controversies of the early modern period, such as the anti-theatrical debate, the relations between parents and children, Machiavaelli1s ideology, the legitimacy of sectarian violence, and the discourse of addiction. Some of the chapters also explore Marlowe's polysemous influence on the theater of his time and of later periods, but, most centrally, upon his more famous contemporary poet/playwright, William Shakespeare.




Shakespeare


Book Description

The extended second edition of this inspiring introduction to Shakespeare offers readers more insights into what makes Shakespeare great, and why we still read and perform his works. A highly innovative introduction to the extraordinary phenomenon of Shakespeare Explores Shakespeares works through the "Seven Ages of Man", from childhood to "second childishness and mere oblivion" Now includes more material on fathers and sons, the perils of courtship, the circumstances of Shakespeares own life, the performance history of his plays on stage and on screen, and more A new final chapter on "Shakespeare Today" looks at the remarkable diversity of interpretations in modern criticism and performance of Shakespeare Discusses a wide range of plays and poems Suitable for both non-specialist readers, and scholars seeking a fresh approach to the study of Shakespeare




Relations Between the Sexes in the Plays of George Bernard Shaw


Book Description

The purpose of this book is to examine the many heterosexual configurations in the plays and to demonstrate by the accumulation of evidence that the actions of Shaw's chief characters are typically the result of their sexual concerns, often coupled with issues of principle. This book is a must for all Shaw specialists and will be of great interest to teachers and students of English and Continental drama and literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.




Critical Survey of Drama: Jules Romains - William Trevor


Book Description

Combines, updates, and expands two earlier Salem Press reference sets: Critical survey of drama, Rev. ed., English language series, published in 1994, and Critical survey of drama, Foreign language series, published in 1986. This new 8 vol. set contains 602 essays, of which 538 discuss individual dramatists and 64 cover broad overview topics. The dramatist profiles contain more than 310 photographs and drawings.