Showing papers on "Hamlet (place) published in 1985"

Hamlet on Stage: The Great Tradition

Abstract: John Mills spotlights the various ways in which the role of Hamlet has been performed over almost four centuries. He launches this work with the first Hamlet portrayal, that of Richard Burbage, and then, in chronological order, describes and analyzes the Hamlets of the other actors who make up the great tradition of English-language Shakespeare acting. Mills devotes an entire chapter to each actor, focusing on acting style, text interpretation, theatrical and critical influences, popular and critical responses, and more. He offers a scene-by-scene account of the central figure's performance, with special emphasis on business and line-readings.

Laurence Olivier and the art of film making

Abstract: This book focuses on the unique set of elements that marks the five films Olivier has directed: Henry V. Hamlet, Richard III, Three Sisters, and the charming Prince and the Showgirl. The author looks at such things as recurring cinematic techniques, the director's preoccupation with certain moral assumptions and values, the place of the actors in these films, and particularly the place of Oliver's performances under his own direction.

Macrocosm and Microcosm

Abstract: Medieval writers had a clear understanding of the fundamental difference between man and beast: not only did the former have a soul he also had reason, and to live without using it was to live like an animal. The ancient philosophers ‘did not think like animals who only want their food, like those nowadays whose only concern is to live like pigs and rest themselves in comfort’ (Image of the World, p. 68). ‘We should call such men beasts’ (Book of Fauvel, 277). Three hundred years later Hamlet is saying the same thing: ‘What is a man if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more’ (Hamlet, IV.iv).

Shakespeare from Scratch: the Footsbarn ‘Hamlet’ and ‘King Lear’

Abstract: The Footsbarn company had its beginnings in a Cornish commune, very much in the spirit of the early 'seventies: yet unlike most companies formed in those years, it has not only survived but developed its work in ways which now communicate as fully to the cultural elite at international festivals as to non-theatre audiences in rural England. Geraldine Cousin, a lecturer in theatre studies at Warwick University. talked with members of Footsbarn at the time of their production of Hamlet in 1980, and again four years later while they were performing King Lear. Her descriptive analysis of those productions here runs parallel with the company's own assessment of how their work has developed. offering both a documentary retrospective of Footsbarn itself, and an individual approach to playing Shakespeare for contemporary audiences.

The Influence of Hamlet on Huckleberry Finn

Abstract: L'integration du soliloque burlesque d'" H " dans " H. F. "| approche comparative des themes, de l'imagerie et de la caracterisation

Responsibility and Crime in Literature

Abstract: Accountability for one's actions has been a major theme that literary artists have grappled with over the centuries. Among the works in which it plays a significant role, and which are here analyzed, are the Oedipus trilogy, Hamlet, The Brothers Karamazov, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Trial, The Stranger, and three twentieth-century American novels: An American Tragedy, Light in August, and Native Son. Insights into the dark recesses of the human mind, which can complement the insights of legal philosophers and social scientists, are revealed in these and other works. They point to an argument that prophesy is not immutable destiny and that social causation is not social determinism. The human being achieves freedom by acceptance of responsibility, each man for his own acts, each woman for hers.

Players of Shakespeare : essays in Shakespearean performance

Abstract: List of illustrations Foreword Acknowledgements List of productions 1. Introduction: abstracts and brief chronicles Philip Brockbank 2. Shylock in The Merchant of Venice Patrick Stewart 3. Portia in The Merchant of Venice Sinead Cusack 4. Malvolio in Twelfth Night Donald Sinden 5. Orlando in As You Like It John Bowe 6. Lavatch in All's Well That Ends Well Geoffrey Hutchings 7. Nurse in Romeo and Juliet Brenda Bruce 8. Polonius in Hamlet Tony Church 9. Hamlet Michael Penington 10. Timon of Athens Richard Pasco 11. Postumus in Cymbeline Roger Rees 12. Hermione in The Winter's Tale Gemma Jones 13. Caliban in The Tempest David Suchet.

The Devil's Party: Critical Counter-interpretations of Shakespearian Drama

Abstract: This survey of past and present controversies about Shakespearian drama asks about the question: Do the plays hold a mirror up to nature? If so, what is the nature of the "nature" reflected in plays as different as Hamlet and As You Like It?K Is the poet on the side of the angels or, in fact, "of the devil's party" in a play like Richard III? Are Hamlet and Cleopatra more to be morally censured than pitied or admired? How seriously should we take the comedies? Rather than attempting to answer these questions, the author here explains why it is that the plays remain open to critical debate. She concludes that Shakespearian drama provides us with the most artistic challenges to any one-sided account of the ways of the wold it reflects and for this reason, for students and teachers, and for actors and audiences alike, its impact is ultimately liberating.

Sex and Authority in Hamlet , King Lear and Pericles

Abstract: La femme et la sexualite chez Shakespeare| lecture de " P. " avec ses paralleles " K. L. " et " H. "

The Illusion of Freedom in The Hamlet and Go Down, Moses

Abstract: T HE HAMLET iS often referred to as the first volume of the "Snopes Trilogy," the three novels which chronicle the rise and demise of the noxious Flem Snopes. Although it is clearly related to the other two volumes of the so-called "trilogy," The Hamlet is as closely akin thematically to Go Down, Moses. Certainly the novels deal with different locales and eras in the Yoknapatawpha saga and feature protagonists as radically opposed as Flem Snopes and Ike McCaslin. Nevertheless, these two works explore contrapuntally a concern which in the late thirties and early forties was central to Faulkner's own life-the illusory nature of freedom. Although Faulkner published The Hamlet in 1940 and Go Down, Moses in 1942, he did not write first one and then the other. As numerous scholarly works indicate, he worked concurrently on the Snopes and McCaslin material as early as 1936 and continued to do so until the publication of Go Down, Moses. 1 This period from 1936 to 1942 was the darkest of his life. According to Karl Zender, Faulkner was burdened during the late thirties and early forties by a "quite extraordinary level of social and material obligations" which included support for numerous family members as well as expenses entailed by his enormous real estate holdings. Arguing that Faulkner's personal situation during these stressful years is reflected in such fictional themes as freedom and bondage, Zender suggests that Faulkner's "most direct self-reference" in Go Down, Moses occurs in the character of the similarly burdened Roth

Hamlet closely observed

Abstract: A major interpretative account of Shakespeare's play, this is a close scrutiny which will engage readers directly with the text and perfomance of the work The Renaissance code of honor is seen to be of central importance to the character of the hero, his actions, and to the play as a whole; and, viewed in this light, there is fresh revelation of the character of Hamlet himslef and of the dramatic world of which he is a part Mr Dodsworth challenges the conventional and traditional reading of Hamlet at many points But he enforces no single overall meaning and readers are encouraged to remain sensiive to their own individual understanding and response

Giving a gift to the hamlet: rank solidarity and productive exchange in rural Japan

Abstract: Historians and anthropologists have emphasized the solidarity of the traditional Japanese farming village, and unquestionably solidarity was one of its major characteristics. . . . But there was an equally important competitive side to village life that has been largely ignored: a competition between families rather than individuals, covert rather than open. . . . The immediate goal was the improvement of family well-being and village status.

Interpretations of Shakespeare : British Academy Shakespeare lectures

Abstract: "The lectures selected by Kenneth Muir stand independently on their merits as essays in criticism.... Even the oldest of them, C.S. Lewis's 'Hamlet, ' retains its provocative edge. Others have acquired a classic status."--Times Higher Education Supplement. "The collection makes important essays more widely available."--Times Literary Supplement. Traditionally, the annual Shakespeare Lectures of the British Academy--from which this volume's selections have been drawn--have addressed themselves to the educated general reader. Anyone interested in Shakespeare, including playgoers, will find much illuminating discussion in this volume. Among the contributors to this volume are Dame Helen Gardner, C.S. Lewis, Philip Edwards, and G.K. Hunter, all of whom have made substantial contributions to Shakespeare criticism in general.

Hamlet: Man of the Theater

Abstract: Hamlet is the only Shakespearean hero who is player, playwright, director, prompter, and audience. He declaims the Pyrrhus speech (II.2.450-64)1 with deftness, yet he also performs different roles throughout the tragedy. His favorite part ,seems to be that of the antic or clown, but he also impersonates the madman, the lover, the preacher (to Gertrude and Ophelia, in particular), the philosopher, and the avenger. He likewise 'performs' in the play within; he is, after all, one Lucianus, nephew to the king. For The Murder of Gonzago, Hamlet qualifies as play doctor, composing a speech of some twelve or sixteen lines (the Player Queen's pronouncements on the duties of a loyal wife ?) to be spoken at a critical point. Again, in a metaphoric sense, he rewrites the script of Claudius' plot to kill him by altering the letter to the English king. Hamlet similarly endeavors to mend the text of his own life by devising lines that will make him over from a melancholic, brooding figure into a cold, exacting revenger. He acts explicitly as director when giving advice to the players (III.2.1-45), but he attempts as well to be director of actions when lecturing Ophelia in the Nunnery Scene and Gertrude in the Closet Scene. His passion for directing these characters to behave according to his sense of moral rectitude is a significant facet of his god-pose.2 Related to this behavior is his penchant for prompting, specifically in his remarks to Gonzago's Lucianus, but also in his putting words in the mouths of Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Osric.3 More important, his soliloquies can be read as self-promptings or verbal struggles to find the spur to his intent. We discover Hamlet behaving as audience for 'performances' in the play: the opening court scene, during the player's Priam speech, while attending the Ghost and watching the play within, in the Prayer Scene, and so forth. As audience Hamlet has much to say about the masks that men-and women-don to hide their flawed natures. It might be added that as a result of his pronouncements on bad acting, in the play within and in life, Hamlet also qualifies as a critic. Given this casting of Hamlet's character by Shakespeare, it follows that we are meant to regard Elsinore as a theater with doors, tapestries (or arrases), upper levels, and tiring rooms. Hamlet prowls the recesses of this stage castle like a player-manager, giving directions to the company, conducting rehearsals, assigning

Staging Shakespeare's History Plays in 1984: A Tale of Three Henrys

Abstract: Any modern interpreter, whether critic, teacher, editor, or theatre professional, must confront what Leontes terms "this wide gap of time"' that separates us from the age of Shakespeare. Such a gap may be signaled by something as simple as the changed meaning in a single word ("presently" in Othello, V.ii.52, or "turtle" in Paulina's last speech).2 More often the gaps run much deeper and are linked to basic (and often unperceived) disparities between our beliefs and assumptions (e.g., about politics, religion, marriage, authority, and theatrical conventions) and those prevalent in Shakespeare's time. Today's interpreter of Hamlet, Prince Hal, or Isabella can easily forget that his or her conclusions are based upon the signals to be found in Elizabethan playscripts written to be performed by Elizabethan actors in an Elizabethan playhouse in front of an Elizabethan audience. Those playscripts survive (sometimes in questionable condition), but the original actors, playhouses, and spectators, as Prospero predicted, have faded into thin air, leaving not a rack behind. Any interpreter of Shakespeare's plays is therefore faced with a four-part equation in which one part is rooted in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century but the other three

Hamlet, Rosencrantz et Guildenstern ou la fin d'une amitié : Un minidrame dans La Tragédie d'Hamlet

Abstract: Le retournement des relations d'amitie dans la tragedie de Shakespeare| manipulation, duperie ou duplicite, malentendu : structure d'un minidrame

Hamlet's BBC Soliloquies

Abstract: DEREK JACOBI HAS CALLED HAMLET "The Mount Everest of acting." John Geilgud has characterized the part as "audience-proof";2 and Gareth Lloyd Evans says that "the actor's temperament and the character of Hamlet are consanguineous. "3 Part of the lure of the role comes from the challenge of the soliloquy-and, of course, the challenge of speaking "to be or not to be" trippingly on the tongue. The 1980 BBC production of Hamlet with Derek Jacobi received much critical acclaim and has been widely viewed by audiences.4 In fact, this production of Hamlet has become a standard teaching tool in colleges and universities. An informal poll at the 1984 meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America showed that, because of its excellence, the BBC Hamlet was regularly used by every participant in the seminar on "Teaching Shakespeare to Undergraduates." Rodney Bennett was the director of the BBC Hamlet,5 and I taped an interview with him on 21 December 1983 in London.6 Much of what follows is based on that interview.

II. Hamlet without the prince of Denmark revisited: Pörn on Kierkegaard and the self

Abstract: Ingmar Porn (Inquiry 27 [1984], nos. 2–3) claims that certain ideas of Kierkegaard's can illuminate a notion of the self articulated in action‐theoretical terms. Through a reconstruction of Kierkegaard's concept of despair, couched in these terms, Porn aims to show how these ideas can contribute to the study of the self. Because he misconstrues an important distinction in Kierkegaard's account of selfhood, Porn fails to show this. It remains uncertain what use the study of the self would have for Kierkegaard's notion of selfhood, and whether an action‐theoretical analysis is capable of bringing out whatever may be of interest in it.

"His form and cause conjoin'd": Reflections on "Cause" in "Hamlet"

Abstract: Characters in Hamlet are continually hunting down causes. Claudius and Polonius seek to determine the cause of Hamlet's distemper, fearing for their own safety and their daughter's, respectively. At the beginning of the play Horatio and the sentinels are uncertain of the cause of Denmark's military preparations. And Hamlet, reflecting on the weightiness of his own cause, wonders at the lack of sufficient cause governing the actions of the Player and of Fortinbras. It would be possible to argue, as one critic has done, that in Hamlet "society is presented, and is present to each character, as a continuous network of causes, agents, and effects, a network of men reciprocally using and exploiting one another"2 except that the play seems finally more

Place and Replacement in Mansfield Park

Abstract: On the ramparts at Portsmouth, Fanny Price is almost as vulnerable as Hamlet was upon the ramparts of Elsinore. 'The very place,' Horatio warned the Prince, 'puts toys of desperation / Without more motive, into every brain / That looks so many fathoms to the sea / And hears it roar beneath.' The uncommon loveliness of that Portsmouth day, the chiaroscuro effect of the sporting clouds, the vivacity of the sea 'dashing against the ramparts' combine with the recent oppressiveness of the handy-dandy world of her parents' household, with the presence of Henry Crawford's arm upon which she can lean, even with the little opportunity she has had of late for this kind of exercise, to make Fanny 'almost careless of the circumstances' (p 413) under which she experiences the scene.

Back to Farce

Abstract: For this last main chapter I have brought together two further short works which Stoppard created for Inter-Action, Dirty Linen (first performed in 1976) and Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth (first staged in 1979), together with the ‘adaptation’ On the Razzle, which opened at the National Theatre in 1981. What unifies them (in sharp contrast to Professional Foul or Night and Day) is their over-riding comic playfulness; the first and last draw more strongly on the classic tradition of farce than any of Stoppard’s other plays, and all three show a return to the kind of slender, stereotyped characterisation methods of After Magritte or The Boundary, where the streams of verbal humour are of paramount concern.