Reading from the Margin: Examining Nahum Tate’s vs. Shakespeare’s King Lear as Cultural Products

Meilinda ,Ribut Basuki

doi:10.9744/kata.12.2.192-209

Abstract

Nahum Tate’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear was so successful in Restoration theatre. Modern critics, however, regard Tate’s work as a second class drama which deserves mockery and dismiss it from master narratives of the history of English theatre. Therefore, we examine the ‘fields of cultural production’ of Shakespeare’s and Nahum Tate’s King Lear from Shakespeare’s time to the present to find out how each period values a certain work of literature. In the discussion, we would like to argue that the shifting ‘fields of cultural production’ determines the acceptance and rejection of Nahum Tate’s King Lear. By analyzing the ‘fields of cultural productions’ of both plays, we show that Tate’s has been excluded from the canonization within modern field of production’s discourses because of shifting circles of belief.

Highlights

In master narratives of the history of English theatre, the hallmark of the Restoration period is usually its comedies, with its peak on the works of William Congreve (1640-1715)
Unlike the ‘flourishing’ tragedies of the Elizabethan period—generally represented by Shakespeare’s works—that are usually triumphant in making it into the modern canon, Restoration tragedies only make it, at best, into the Restoration canon
Unlike John Dryden, Tate failed to put his name in totalized narratives of the history of English theatre/drama such as that written by Oscar G

Summary

KING LEAR AND THE FIELD CULTURAL PRODUCTION

To do justice to the values of Nahum Tate’s King Lear compared to that of Shakespeare, we cannot rely solely on the traditional construction of the history of Shakespeare or English drama/theatre. There is a need to reexamine any source and scrutinize meanings that have been silenced in the face of the construction of Shakespeare as a giant in the English literature. In this part we would like to explore the history of the compositions and productions of King Lear and see how the shifting fields of cultural production affect the authorities of the artists

The Compositions and Productions of King Lear since Elizabethan Period

CONCLUSION