Entire Drama Research Articles

The King on Stage: Philip IV and the Projection of Power in Lope de Vega’s Opera La selva sin amor

Abstract: Lope de Vega’s opera, La selva sin amor (1627), is consequential as Spain’s inaugural opera, penned by the country’s foremost playwright, executed through Italian recitative, and featuring pioneering stage designs and machinery by Cosimo Lotti. What truly distinguishes this production, however, is the personal involvement of King Philip IV. He attended rehearsals over an extended period, modified the script and music, performed the opera’s music, sang its verses, operated the stage machinery, and occupied a prominent front-and-center seat in the audience. The King’s active participation collapses the distance between the stage and the audience, effectively integrating the monarch into every aspect of the production and making him the central focal point of the entire drama. Amplifying the mimetic properties of the work, the King is inside and outside the play concurrently, a symbolic projection of authority.

An Analysis of the Phenomenon of "Collapsing Persona" of Chinese Celebrities through Goffman's Dramaturgical Theory

In the current context of the rapid development of China's entertainment industry, the creation of a popular celebrity "persona" has become a shortcut for celebrities and their agencies to gain benefits, and celebrities can quickly gain attention and a large number of fans by constructing a "persona". However, with the rapid development of the Internet, the real face behind the celebrity's "persona" is gradually exposed to the public, and the collapse of the celebrity's "persona" is a common occurrence. The phenomenon of the collapse of celebrity "persona" has serious implications at the personal, interactive and social levels, and the communication and sociological logic and issues behind it are worth exploring and reflecting on. Therefore, this paper analyses the causes of the phenomenon and its negative effects from the perspective of Goffman's mimesis theory and makes suggestions and reflections on how to avoid the negative effects brought about by the collapse of celebrities' "personas". The study found that the collapse of celebrities' "persona" was caused by capital guidance from agencies, the uneven quality of the celebrities themselves, the rapid development of the Internet, the alienation of symbolic consumption, and the addition of fan groups to the drama class. The collapse of a celebrity's "persona" will in turn have a negative impact on these factors, not only affecting the circulation and reproduction of capital, but also deeply affecting the role perception and cultural identity of fans and society at large, fostering a negative social climate and hindering social progress and development. Therefore, in order to eliminate this phenomenon, the entire drama class needs to work together, with stars, agencies, the media, the public, especially fans and the government, and other rights holders sharing their respective social responsibilities to build a good entertainment culture and a healthy popular culture.

The Problem of the Actress in Modern German Theater and Thought by S. E. Jackson

Reviewed by: The Problem of the Actress in Modern German Theater and Thought by S. E. Jackson Ellwood Wiggins The Problem of the Actress in Modern German Theater and Thought. By S. E. Jackson. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2021. Pp. xiii + 232. Cloth $99.00. ISBN 9781640140868. S. E. Jackson's fascinating monograph opens by connecting Nietzsche's "Problem of the Actor" to his problem with women (1). This brilliant move heralds her exploration of the centrality of gender to performance and performers in fin-de-siècle Germany. Actresses are not just a side issue or specialized topic when it comes to modernist theater. The questions posed by performing women instead point to the most pressing theoretical and practical issues of the day. Jackson's book is a veritable treasure trove of materials, narratives, and perspectives from German-language sources around 1900. It should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in gender, performance, or theater history in German modernism. The Problem of the Actress successfully straddles intellectual history and theater historiography by showing how intimately related conceptual debates (about issues as seemingly disparate as femininity and temporality, for instance) were to influential stage performances in the early 1900s. In the process of this back and forth between pseudo-philosophical publications (such as the repulsive misogynist Otto Weininger's Geschlecht und Charakter) and "paratheatrical writing" (production reviews, memoirs, and metatheatrical fiction), the book unfolds a striking cultural history of Wilhelmine Germany. Especially impressive is the way Jackson has marshaled a rich collection of little-known (and never-translated) contemporary treatises on acting and reviews of performances to paint a thickly textured portrait of the age. The first two chapters lay out the conceptual oppositions that both animated theoretical debates and constricted the practical conditions of female performers. These are followed by three chapters that use close readings of texts and performances to open up explorations of wider themes. All five chapters explore the creation of identity as a site of negotiation between heteronomous subjects who must respond to the ineluctable gender expectations of others. One admirable strength of the book is the way it weaves the longer tradition of German performance history into its lively account of Wilhelmine theater. Jackson [End Page 579] clearly demonstrates her reliance on previous scholarship about women in performance in the long eighteenth century both as methodological models for her own project and to outline the powerful continuities between acting traditions. Too often studies of modernism present the era as radically new and fail to notice the prevalence of older forms of thought even in what seem to be reactions against the past. Jackson avoids this trap by tracing the transformations of established paradigms in the new age. Her frequent citations of Mary Helen Dupree's groundbreaking study of Enlightenment and Romantic actress-writers, The Mask and the Quill (Bucknell University Press, 2011), in particular, show how abiding were the paradoxical demands of naturalness and artifice constructed around performing the feminine. In many ways, Jackson's study can be read as an exciting sequel to Dupree's, carrying the same incisive and sensitive readings of women's performance and women's writing forward into the next century. It is heartbreaking to see how little had changed for women in the intervening years. Jackson sums up a 1928 novel by the actress Tilla Durieux, for instance, by saying that it "presents the obligatory performance of femininity as destructive for women" (149). This quote could easily function as a precise digest of Mary Wollstonecraft's argument in the Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). But Jackson's acknowledgement of continuity simultaneously allows her to showcase even more precisely the very real novelties in intellectual concepts and theatrical practice that make the early twentieth century such a momentous era in European history. This achievement of the book becomes most evident in the final chapter. By focusing on the actress Gertrud Eysolt's 1903 performance of Elektra, Jackson persuasively shows how the character and in fact the entire drama would have been inconceivable without the actress's creative contributions. In a way, the book invites a recasting of the three-way antagonism between actor, writer, and director—all...

A Study on Chinese Subtitle Translation Aspects of Conversation Implications in Korean Dramas - Focusing on the Drama “Misaeng”

A Study on Chinese Subtitle Translation Aspects of Conversation Implications in Korean Dramas - Focusing on the Drama “Misaeng”

Нетленный Иоганн Себастьян: Dramatik

That figurative sphere which may be defined by the conception of Dramatik is presented in Johann Sebastian Bach’s music in a very broad range, spanning from elegiac moods to a condensed dramaticism and even certain tragic qualities of world perception. His elegiac qualities have been interpreted in the range from emphatic sadness to emphasized melancholy. Dramatic figurativeness asserts itself with the greatest amount of distinctness in Bach’s music when the motives of depiction of the struggle of lie are depicted. In contrast to the struggles of a proud titanic nature, Bach turned upon numerous times to depicting the perturbed human spirit, which was naturally connected with heightened expression and complex psychologism. The composer elaborated most frequently the idea of the path of life, which was his first artistic discovery. Comprehending perfectly well the entire drama of human existence, Bach brought out in his music a humanistic conception of stirring confrontation with darkness and grief, and also that which according to its semantic essence may be defined by such conceptions as the special tenderness of the soul and deep commiseration to the sufferings of man.

How Not to Become Tolerant: Habitus and Affects in Lessing’sNathan the Wise

AbstractThe coincidences and phantasms that open Lessing’s playNathan the Wisereappear throughout the entire drama and even bring about its happy ending. While the usual interpretation of the plot maintains that the illusions held by the protagonists of the play – such as their superstitions, unrestrained affects, and prejudices – are overcome via a learning process and transformed into tolerance, I propose a different view. In this article I argue, firstly, that these previous illusions are already slightly enlightened, rather than completely dim and dull, and, secondly, that this process only ostensibly leads to tolerance. As a consequence, my analysis focuses on the negotiation between tolerance and intolerance. Finally, I arrive at the conclusion that the maid Daja actually represents tolerance in a better way than the protagonists because she is the only one from whom tolerant endurance is demanded. The analysis of the affective patterns of the play demonstrate thatNathan the Wisecan not only be read as a parable of tolerance, but also as a parable of the formation of a privileged habitus within the realm of the family.

Samuel Beckett and the Politics of Aftermath by James McNaughton, Beckett’s Political Imagination by Emilie Morin

<i>Samuel Beckett and the Politics of Aftermath</i> by James McNaughton, <i>Beckett’s Political Imagination</i> by Emilie Morin

Shakespeare’s Richard III: An Anomalous Protagonist in an Unusual Play

Shakespeare’s Richard III is studied in terms of the positivity of language in Richard’s speeches (close to 8000 emotionally scored words). Positivity is evaluated with the Dictionary of Affect in Language (Whissell, 2009). A plot line modeled with a polynomial regression is sketched for the entire drama on the basis of positivity. The overall emotion of the play is positive, and essentially comic (in comparison to Shakespeare’s oeuvre) but the trajectory of the plot of Richard III is tragic. Richard appears as a psychopath in most of the play but becomes more neurotic and conscience-stricken towards the end. The two discussions where Richard is attempting to force a marriage (with Anne, with Queen Elizabeth’s daughter) are compared and differentiated.

Хорова фуга як об’єкт художньо-виконавської інтерпретації (на прикладі «In sempiterna saecula, Amen» з кантати «Stabat Mater» Джоаккіно Россіні)

ктуальність. Вперше здійснюється розгляд виконавської проблематики, пов’язаної із художніми завданнями, що постають в процесі виконавської інтерпретації хорової фуги. Мета роботи – виявити специфічні вокально-хорові труднощі, зумовлені складною поліфонічною фактурою, формою та драматургією двотемної фуги, а також методи їх вирішення. Методологія спирається на взаємодію компаративного, аналітичного, а також виконавського методів. Висновки. Хоча фузі присвячена велика кількість досліджень, специфіка хорової фуги вимагає окремого розгляду, що зумовлюється, насамперед, присутністю тексту, багатотембральністю, своєрідністю хорової артикуляції, фактури тощо. Усе зазначене здійснює безпосередній вплив на будову теми і драматургії фуги в цілому. Виявлено художньо-виконавські задачі та їх реалізацію в поліфонічній фактурі, потенційні вокально-хорові труднощі та запропоновано методи їх подолання.

Secret Love, Private Space, and Inner Sanctuary: The Concealed in THE AGE OF INNOCENCE

Secrecy is the central element upon which the entire drama of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence hinges: The tension between Newland Archer's public married life and his private love interest is ...

Der comes Romanus, der Heermeister Theodosius und die drei letzten Akte der ‘Lepcis-Magna-Affaire’ (a. 373-377)

Ammianus Marcellinus takes the conflict between the citizens of Lepcis Magna and the comes rei militaris per Africam Romanus as a prime example to illustrate the policies of Valentinian I (AD 364- 375). The emperor is criticised for the extent of corruption under his rule as well as for his leniency towards criminal but high-ranking officials (27. 9. 1-4; 28. 6. 1-29). Satisfaction for the sufferings of the Tripolitan city was allegedly owed solely to sempiternus Iustitiae vigor, since the latter prevented the culprits from escaping their due punishment which they had undergone mainly during the reign of Gratian (AD 375-383) (30. 2. 9-12). For the sake of these intentions, the ‘moral historian’ is prepared to blur the plot significantly, even accepting various inconsistencies within his account, which, in turn, are mirrored in modern literature. Notwithstanding, some scholars have shed light on events behind the scenes by revealing facets of factionalism at court or of the more general dispute between civil- and military-minded officials. But, on the whole, a systematic decomposition of the entire drama is required to differentiate clearly between suggestions and basically reliable facts. Thus the dispatch of the elder Theodosius to Africa in AD 373 as well as the scrutiny of Romanus’ correspondence, which furthered the final three acts of the affair, were obviously due to the suspicion that the count had some responsibility for Firmus to rebel. However, the incriminations turned out to be unfounded and Romanus was therefore reinstated, a fact hitherto ignored and further buried under the inept conjecture of proscripti instead of praescripti (28. 6. 26). These circumstances also have a considerable impact on the understanding of the trial at Milan in AD 377, last in the chain of events but the first and only compromise.

Die Bedeutung des verses 523 in der Antigone des Sophokles Ουτοι συνεχθειν, αλλα συμφιλειν εφυν Ein neuer deutungsversuch

This paper suggests a new interpretation for verse 523 in Sophocles' Antigone. The prefix συν- in the verbs συνέχθειν and συμφιλεῖν has generally been translated as meaning "with" or "together". The author attempts to prove that the meaning of the prefix in this verse is the completion of an action and suggests the following translation: "I was not born to hate completely, but to love fully." This translation fits nicely into the contexts of Antigone's dialogue with Creon, as well as into the context of the entire drama as a whole. The second part of the paper cites various passages in which the prefix συν- is used for indicating the completion of an action; the examples include a passage from Sophocles' Ajax that is strikingly similar to verse 523 οf Antigone.

A proactive, data-based determination of the standard of medical care in pediatrics.

A 3-week-old infant awoke with a fever. He was taken to the doctor who noted that the child was irritable. The doctor took him to the hospital where a resident performed a spinal tap, started an intravenous (IV) line, and ordered antibiotics. The entire drama, from entering the doctor's office to infusion of ampicillin, took 2 hours. The doctor was sued for malpractice. Expert witnesses for the plaintiff testified that he had deviated from the standard of medical care by taking too long to administer antibiotics, which, in their view, ought to have been given within 30 minutes. Expert witnesses for the defense testified that 2 hours to administer antibiotics in this case was within the standard of care. What ought to be the response of the pediatric community to discrepant expert testimony such as this? One possible response is nothing. Lawyers from both sides will find expert medical witnesses who articulate positions favorable to their clients (as they did in this case), and the truth will emerge after vigorous cross-examination. This, we suggest, is inadequate. We believe that some expert opinions can be viewed as better than others. That is, some opinions describe the standard of medical care correctly while other expert opinions are (to put it charitably) idiosyncratic, failing to depict accurately the skill and care ordinarily administered in comparable situations. Currently, jurors are informed about the standard of care by expert witnesses, who rely on their own medical knowledge and experience. However, a huge body of literature demonstrates that recollections of individual experience are inevitably flawed, and flawed in a nonrandom direction (the Monday morning quarterback phenomenon). Consider the infant with meningitis. When experts in pediatric emergency medicine and pediatric infectious diseases (ID) were asked about the median time from emergency room (ER) presentation to administration of antibiotics in a child with suspected meningitis, their opinions were wrong and slanted toward the outcome known to be desired (namely, a shorter elapsed time). ER physicians (median estimated time to antibiotic administration [AB-TIME] = 46 minutes) and ID physicians (median estimated AB-TIME = 80 minutes) consistently underestimated the actual median value of AB-TIME determined by chart review (120 minutes). From the judicial perspective such potential flaws in expert testimony are assumed to be equally distributed among experts. All admissible evidence is a priori of equal weight until a jury decides otherwise. The standard of medical care is created anew by expert testimony in each individual case, disappearing, like Brigadoon, upon resolution of the dispute. However, to anyone but a lawyer, the standard of medical care must exist as something outside the courtroom testimony of experts, and if it does exist, it should be easily described so that expert testimony can be judged more (or less) accurate in depicting it. We contend that medical care is not a single behavior that conforms to or deviates from an idiosyncratic and retrospectively determined standard, but rather a distribution of behaviors in response to a variety of medical circumstances. For a given scenario, each of several possible responses can be ascribed a relative frequency based on empirical data, and the consequent normal curve depicts the totality of medical care. Substandard care then falls out neatly as behaviors lying outside the large majority of cases. Juries would be empowered (as they are currently) to determine exactly where on this curve substandard care lies, but at least the debate would share the same description of reality. Recent US Supreme Court guidelines regarding expert testimony provide an opportunity to expand the use of databases in medical negligence cases. The Court restricted expert testimony to "scientific knowledge ... based on generating hypotheses and testing them to see if they can be falsified ... (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

The role of empathic distress in the enjoyment of cinematic tragedy

The present investigation explores the enjoyment of cinematic tragedy. In particular, it examines the seemingly paradoxical relationship between the intensity of empathic distress during exposure, on the one hand, and the magnitude of enjoyment following exposure to the entire drama, on the other. In a quasi-experimental design, trait empathy (low, high) was cross-varied with gender of respondent. Empathic reactions of negative hedonic valence were obtained at three points during the film. After film exposure, respondents indicated their enjoyment of the film as a whole. Results showed proportional hedonic reversals from distress to enjoyment. High empathizers experienced more empathic distress during the film than low empathizers, but also enjoyed the film as a whole more than low empathizers did. Additionally, females experienced more empathic distress than males, but also enjoyed the film as a whole more than males did. Those who experienced greater hedonic lows during exposure to tragic happenings thus came to experience greater hedonic highs after the resolution of tragic drama.

Wagner's Parsifal: Musical Form and the Drama of Redemption

In his essay, Main Stream of Music, Donald Francis Tovey wrote that revolution effected by Wagner is not less important-or, as Kant would say, not less Copernian-than any previous event in musical history. It concerns the time-scale of music .... Wagner's achievement consisted in refashioning the whole texture and form of music until it covered the drama on a time-scale measured by hours instead of minutes.1 As evidence of Wagner's concern with musical form on the largest scale, Tovey pointed to the presence of massive recapitulations in Tristan and in the Ring, yet nowhere in his writings did he describe in detail the procedures which made possible this enormous expansion of the time-scale of music, enabling Wagner to equate the development of music with the development of the entire drama. Nor has this important matter received much attention in the vast literature on Wagner. As Anthony Newcomb recently pointed out, the large-scale formal context of the later music dramas is a topic conspicuously avoided in most scholarship since Lorenz.2 The shortcomings of the analyses of Lorenz, or of traditional analysis of Wagner's works according to leitmotives, on the other hand, may be due in part to the inadequacy of Wagner's earlier theoretical concepts when applied to his later music. Wagner's own discussions of the poetic-musical period and of of reminiscence, for instance, appear in his treatise Opera and Drama from 1851. The term poetic-musical period was employed only once by Wagner, but it has sidetracked much analysis since Lorenz used it to justify his division of the music into a succession of closed schematic forms.3 Not surprisingly, the analyses of Lorenz have been shown to be almost always artificial, if not downright inaccurate. Such attempts inevitably run counter to larger formal continuities in the music. Analogous difficulties confront an analytical approach based on leitmotives. As Jack Stein and others have pointed out, true motives of reminiscence largely disappear in Tristan and later works, where the motives undergo a more complex musical development, and rarely can be assigned dramatic

Dürrenmatt's Die Ehe Des Herrn Mississippi: The Revision Of A Play

EVEN A CURSORY READING OF Diirrenmatt's plays reveals that he is by no means a traditional dramatist. His first published work, Es steht geschrieben (1946), is not divided into acts; time and place change, but no pauses or intermissions are indicated. The scenes flow uninterruptedly one into another from the beginning of the play to the end. The same technique was used in Der Blinde (1947): the entire drama is one unit which flows from scene to scene without a pause, changes in time and place notwithstanding. In the play, Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi (1950, 1957), the action is divided into two parts, the first of which is much longer than the second. Here again the element of time is treated unconventionally. The play begins with the end; the character who is to be shot at the end of the play is actually executed as the curtain rises. He then gets up and proceeds to speak directly to the audience, giving the background necessary for the action to follow. In Romulus der Grosse (1948, 19.56), Ein Engel kommt nach Babylon (1953), and Der Besuch der alten Dame (1955) Diirrenmatt makes use of the normal act structure, but within the individual acts of these three plays, normal time and space relationships are disregarded, scenes sometimes change without benefit of a curtain, flats are raised and lowered, and props changed before the eyes of the audience—techniques reminiscent of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of our Teeth and Brecht's epic theater. No attempt is made to create and maintain an illusion of reality.