“We were all commanded out of the chamber” (5.2.5–6): Privacy and Architecture in The Winter’s Tale

Abstract

ABSTRACTRelying on architectural imagery and turning a private matter into public concern, The Winter’s Tale echoes many early modern anxieties about privacy. Constantly questioning what is seen, heard and said, it finally leaves many of its secrets untold and appears to be built around a blank. It creates an intricate relation between architectural space, presence and absence as fictional domestic space and actual theatrical space interact in a complex public/private dialectic.