Historical Drama Research Articles

THE ADVANCEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE NOW, OR THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

ABSTRACTWhat role should history play in the advancement of knowledge? Because it was so “hard,” so “unbelievably difficult … to get people to believe” in his Great Renewal, Francis Bacon thought a history of knowledge could provide evidence of advancement—a reason to “believe” and participate in his experiment. By indexing advancement, historians of knowledge could foster it. If Bacon were with us today, he would be happy to hear that the history of knowledge is a thriving enterprise. But upon reading our version, he would be dismayed to discover that advancement is nowhere to be found. It's the elephant in the room. That shouldn't surprise him or us—the great difficulty of The Great Renewal is that it always needs to be renewed—but this is a new kind of precarity. I call it friendly fire, because it's damage done not by those who wish to contain or undermine knowledge but by those whose purpose it is to produce and valorize it. Why, I ask in this article, is a volume that offers so much of value—Information: A Historical Companion—so unattuned to issues of advancement? Although occasioned by the current ubiquity of “information,” its focus is not on change—asking such questions as “why information?” and “why now?”—but on asserting the “belief” that “every age is an information age.” In a history built on that belief, change is relegated to subordinate clauses (“while recognizing changes over time”) and advancement isn't even on the table. I put it back on not by rejecting this companion but by providing a companion for it, one in which identifying and classifying change is the central task. I take two preparatory steps. First, I clarify how the concept of “culture” configures the agenda and the findings of Companion 1 while fencing out advancement. Second, I set the agenda for Companion 2 by specifying that the knowledge at stake in advancement is “explanatory knowledge.” I both address concerns about the notion of “progress” and provide a vocabulary for explanation highlighted by the concepts of “fit” and “reach.” Companion 2 then approaches the elephant from a number of angles, from a shift in information over four centuries from a matrix of currency to a matrix of possibility to the pacing of that change by a feature of the history of knowledge that I call the “sequence of surprise.” Since Bacon's highest hope for his history of knowledge was to make us better at advancing it, I conclude with a speculative turn to information's future, from Alan Turing's first use of the word “information” in its modern sense to a rethinking—through the history of knowledge—of the “hallucination” issue in our new forms of generative AI.

„Sonnenpferde der Zeit“. Ansätze des jungen J.W. Goethe zur ästhetischen Subjektreflexion anhand von altersgruppenspezifischen Merkmalen

The article starts by drawing attention to the historical, western discourse of the eighteenth century, addresses the topic of a newly founded reflection on age groups, provides information on genetic aspects, on new evaluations of Goethe’s early, aesthetic, reflection on age-groups, focuses on his two historical dramas Götz von Berlichingen and Egmont, shows how the reflection on age groups is launched and is primarily generated by the interaction of literary figures that belong to different age groups: Götz – Georg, Götz – Karl, Egmont – Richard, Clara – Clara’s mother, Ferdinand – Ferdinand’s father, Ferdinand – Egmont. This interaction produces self-representations and interpretations of the counterpart that emerge in dependence on or in difference from certain age-group characteristics.

The Biblical History Play: Turning Seventeenth-Century Joseph Plays into Political Drama

Abstract This article examines the shift in popularity from religious to historical and political drama from the late sixteenth century onward, particularly focusing on plays about the patriarch Joseph. The study explores how new historiographical approaches influenced the portrayal of biblical narratives, transforming them to reflect contemporary interests in politics and court life. By analyzing a selection of primarily Jesuit plays, the article demonstrates how the biblical story of Joseph was adapted to align with the baroque fascination for ancient history and the emerging trend of political drama. The shift in Jesuit drama during the baroque period from biblical to more secular subjects is evident in the dramatizations of Joseph’s story, which often incorporate elements of historical exegesis and elaborate depictions of ancient societies, particularly that of Egypt. These plays illustrate how the story of Joseph was recontextualized within a framework of international politics, war, and court intrigue, introducing new characters, plotlines, and subplots. This intermixing of genres reflects a broader tendency in early modern drama to blend sacred and secular elements, resulting in hybrid forms that straddled the line between biblical drama and history plays. The article concludes that this blending not only revitalized biblical drama but also helped bridge the gap between declining religious plays and the rising popularity of political and historical narratives.

“Built on the Money”: The Financialization of Capitalism and the Sense of History in Josie Rourke’s Stage Production of Shaw’s Saint Joan

ABSTRACT In a bold move, Josie Rourke reimagined Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan for the 2016 audience at the Donmar Warehouse, setting it against the backdrop of today’s financial world. She transported Joan from the medieval battlefield to a modern corporate boardroom, turning historical drama into a commentary on financialization. Through this lens, Rourke’s production responds with Shaw’s paradoxical sense of history, characterized by a skepticism toward short-term trends, yet with an underlying optimism for long-term human progress driven by imagination. By examining egg futures and stock markets, this article adopts an interdisciplinary approach to position theatrical work within the realm of economics, an endeavor that may offer a literary framework of humanity when contemplating our current economic landscape.

Premchand, the playwright and the drama critic: Evaluating Hindi theatrescape in colonial India

Besides writing some of the greatest novels and short stories in Urdu and Hindi, Premchand, the doyen of Indian fiction, also engaged with the genre of drama: he translated several European plays into Hindi and Urdu, authored three original plays, and reviewed contemporary plays and commented on different performative traditions in his articles. Drawing upon the paratexts of Premchand’s plays—especially the prefaces to Sangram (1923) and Karbala (1924), his articles such as “Hindi Rangmanch” and “Bhartendu Babu Harishchandra”, and his reviews of contemporary plays—the essay studies Premchand’s attempt to institutionalize Hindi drama and theatre as a distinct tradition: it explores how he outlined dramaturgy and aesthetics of playwriting and performance, mapped the history and modernity of Hindi drama, diagnosed the ills that ailed Hindi theatre and suggested remedies. Furthermore, it explores how he hailed the advent of Naya Drama (New drama) in Hindi and scrutinized modernity in theatrescapes in colonial India.

Everyday Life vs. Politics: The Image of Joan of Arc in the Cinema of the Twentieth

The article draws on a unified corpus of historical feature films released in the twentieth century and centred on a single subject, namely the story of Joan of Arc (1412?–1431), the heroine of the Hundred Years’ War. In modern historiography (études johanniques) such comprehensive studies practically have not yet been conducted: researchers prefer to analyze each film separately, thereby missing possible connections and intersections of their creators’ ideas. In this article, the author aims to examine the extent to which these films conform to one of the most important principles of historical drama, that is, the principle of authenticity, which requires that the daily life of a particular historical era be portrayed on the screen with the utmost accuracy. These observations lead the author to conclude that, in most cases, realism is not a priority for the makers of films about Joan of Arc. Rather, their task is to follow the current historical moment in which a particular screenplay is conceived and implemented. At the beginning of the twentieth century, on the eve of the official canonisation of the Maid of Orleans (1920), the films about her had a distinctly hagiographical character, but over the following decades their semantic load kept changing, ranging from criticism of the European judicial system to criticism (or exaltation) of the existing political system.

Performing a constitution: a history of Magna Carta in Shakespeare’s King John

ABSTRACT Despite its now totemic constitutional status, Magna Carta is not explicitly mentioned in Shakespeare’s history play of King John. King John has been interrogated by literary scholars for references to the charter and investigated by historians for potential oversight. Yet, often overlooked are the sporadic references to Magna Carta in nineteenth-century productions of the play. During the nineteenth century, Magna Carta’s legal significance waned as clauses were removed from legislation. Its political purchase is well-documented, including its use by the Chartists, and its use in nationalist-based support for wars at the start and end of the century. What is often unheeded in legal scholarship, is the shifting cultural significance of the charter. A performance history of Shakespeare’s King John exposes the different treatment of Magna Carta in productions of Shakespeare’s play and related theatrical representations of the charter in popular melodrama and pantomimes in the nineteenth century. This paper uses archival material of theatre productions to interrogate the status of Magna Carta through a performance history of Shakespeare’s King John in nineteenth-century London. Investigating the representations of Magna Carta in theatre productions offers a complex picture of the charter’s place in the history of British constitutionalism.

Villawood – a suburb with a dramatic history

Villawood – a suburb with a dramatic history

دور الحكاية في مسرحية عشوائي للكاتبة ديبي تاكر جرين

Storytelling is a theatrical method employed by playwrights to delve into the profound aspects of a character's psyche. It allows characters to directly communicate with the audience serving multiple functions within the play. Moreover, this task can be executed by a protagonist or multiple characters, and occasionally even by actors who are not directly engaged in the play's action. Playwrights have employed this form in different periods throughout the history of drama. Debbie Tucker Green, A Black British playwright, employs the technique of storytelling in her play random to engage the audience in responding to street violence in London. The present paper aims to focus on this play, particularly on the act of storytelling, as the researcher observes that existing studies often discuss Tucker Green's plays solely within the context of her identity as a Black writer addressing issues within Black communities, neglecting to explore her unique stylistic approach. So, this study aims to fill in this gap. Tucker Green , unlike other Black playwrights, portrays traumatic experiences of loss and violence through her distinctive style of writing. By utilizing storytelling, she effectively depicts the feelings and thoughts of her characters, thus raising awareness among the audience about the vulnerability of Black citizens.

Artistic Creation of Joan of Arc: Taking Roles of The Epilogue in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan as An Example

In the recent century, researchers have become increasingly focused on the famous English writer George Bernard Shaw’s historical play Saint Joan. It is generally accepted that Saint Joan is one of Shaw’s best works and seems to illustrate Mr. Shaw’s mind more clearly than anything he has written before. Most of these researchers have discussed general features of the French military figure Joan of Arc. While this point of view has been very productive, particularly in portraying personalities of the historical prototype and enriching readers’ cognition about Shaw’s comments on Joan and background knowledge in understanding that piece of history, this initial perception fails to take into account Shaw’s fundamental differences from other cultural depictions: that Shaw has his special views of the miserable condition of Joan, which is mainly shown in the last Epilogue of this book. To date, it has been universally acknowledged that among all the “Joans” in previous works, Shaw’s is simultaneously “the most intriguing”, “the most ambivalent”, “the most dramatically round” and “the most revealingly relevant to leadership”. As Herbert indicates in his George Bernard Shaw: Saint Joan (1988), Saint Joan is “a tremendous success” and “the humor, fantasy, and anachronisms” that the critics have found in Saint Joan become “accepted characteristics of the new genre of historical drama”. Besides, some critics such as Michael Holroyd has characterized the play as Shaw’s “only tragedy” and they tend to study Shaw’s thought by analyzing the long Preface included in the text of the published play. Generally speaking, Shaw’s play Saint Joan has much to say about characteristics of Joan of Arc and it has become public property. However, there has been scant systematic investigation of Saint Joan’s special arrangement. This study will address the overall problem of the role of the epilogue.

Achieving Attractions in the Historical Drama

This study aims to reveal the effect of dramatic treatment elements and their ability toattract audiences to historical dramas. The study employed a quantitative approach as descriptive research, by the collection of quantifiable data for statistical analysis usingSPSS. The study conducted multiple linear regression analyses to identify the effects of variables on the attractiveness of historical drama. The study concluded that thecombined effect of content, dramatic structure, accuracy of information, educational level, and watching the drama factors on the attractiveness of historical drama to viewers is 61.1%. This means that the attractiveness of the dramatic work is influenced by thefollowing factors: content 34.8%, dramatic structure 19.7%, accuracy of information23.4%, educational level 8.7%, and watching drama 8.7%. Therefore, increase in interest in these elements leads to heightened attractiveness of the dramatic work, consequentlyencouraging viewers to continue watching the drama. This article makes a valuableacademic contribution by providing scientific insights that aid in understanding theappeal of certain series and movies to audiences, as well as identifying weaknesses inattracting viewers to other works. Furthermore, it offers guidance to producers andscriptwriters in enhancing the overall performance of their dramas.

An Analysis of the Kurmanjan Datka Movie in the Context of Historical and Ideological Film Criticism

Kurmanjan Datka Queen of the Mountains (2014) is a Kyrgyz historical drama film directed by Sadyk Sher-Niyaz tells the story of Kurmanjan Datka from Kyrgyz history. In this article, how the mentioned motion picture is discussed in Central Asian, Russian, Turkish and Western digital media is analyzed comparatively in the context of historical and ideological film criticism. It is tried to be understood how each country interprets the film in their own media, how they look at the history of Kyrgyzstan and its ideological discourse. In the research, critical discourse analysis method was used and conceptual and thematic classifications were made. At the end of the research, while more history and politics were discussed in the Central Asian media, the Russian and Turkish digital media did not show enough attention to the historical flow, while the Western digital media discussed the film in a multifaceted way in the context of economy-political, identity, gender and aesthetics. Another remarkable difference was that some of the Kyrgyz or Kazakh critics (especially statesmen, historians or artists) criticized the film on the economic-political axis. The in-depth and multidimensional criticisms of the film developed by the eastern critics were found in the Western media or Western journalists gave place to these views in their own digital media.

Research on Analysis and Optimization Strategies of Empresses in the Palace

This research delves into the intricacies of marketing strategies employed for the Chinese historical drama series “Empresses in the Palace." This study reveals vital insights through a comprehensive analysis of the existing marketing approaches and the unique challenges the historical drama genre poses. The “Empresses in the Palace” marketing strategies demonstrated innovation and creativity against intense competition within the historical drama landscape. Bridging the historical-contemporary gap and sustaining viewer engagement emerged as prominent challenges. This research has proposed various strategies tailored to address these challenges effectively. These strategies encompass diversified trailers, interactive engagement initiatives, and the integration of augmented reality experiences, aiming to optimize marketing endeavors. They seek to captivate contemporary audiences and maintain their interest throughout the series. The significance of the findings extends beyond this singular case, offering valuable lessons for historical drama marketing and its broader implications for the entertainment industry. This research recognizes the need for ongoing adaptation and innovation in engaging audiences with captivating historical narratives.

Не вполне русская любовь в русской исторической драме и опере. Царская невеста – Василиса Мелентьева – Царская невеста

In Russian historical drama of the nineteenth century, The Tsar’s Bride (1849) by Mey and Vasilisa Melentieva (1868) by Ostrovsky and Gedeonov stand out for unusually complex and developed love themes. It has recently been noted that Mey’s play was influenced not only by Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor, but particularly by Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor, which is based on the novel. I show that Gedeonov, the original author of Vasilisa Melentieva, was inspired not so much by Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, but by Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. As in Mey’s case, this explains the special importance of female characters and romantic conflict in the play. The experiments of Mey and Gedeonov led Rimsky-Korsakov to compose an opera (1898) – based on and named after Mey’s The Tsar’s Bride – which was the most Italianate of Russian operas dedicated to the national past. In other words, the composer gave the love theme from ancient Russian history a musical beauty that elevated the theme to the highest level of artistic hedonism. But the main focus of the article is on Vasilisa Melentieva by Gedeonov and Ostrovsky.

Lao She's Beijing-style Language Reflects the Changes of the Times and the Feelings of the Family and Country

Lao She is a famous novelist in modern China and has the reputation of "People's Artist". His play "Teahouse" is considered by Cao Yu to be "a treasure in the history of Chinese drama". In "Teahouse", Lao She portrays a series of citizens represented by Wang Lifa, who grew up in Beijing and have a rich "Beijing flavor" in their language. Lao She is also using these original "Beijing flavor" language, through the mouth of these citizen images, to show the changes of modern China and Lao She's strong feelings for his family and country.

‶Don’t Say Neigh, Say Yay”

‶Don’t Say Neigh, Say Yay”

Dostoevsky’s Lost Play “Boris Godunov” (Sources, Concept)

According to contemporaries, the play “Boris Godunov” was written by Dostoevsky before he began work on the novel “Poor People.” The manuscript of the play is lost. Some assumptions about its composition have been made in the scientific literature, but this article for the first time undertakes a systematic analysis, if possible, of all the alleged sources of the idea, as well as some of its reflections in the writer’s later works. The article examines the situation in Russian historiography and fiction related the coverage of the reign of Boris Godunov and the personality of the tsar himself prior to Dostoevsky’s undertaking of this topic. The key sources for him were the 9 volumes of Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State” and Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov,” which formed the consciousness of the future writer since the times of family readings in his parents’ house. Subsequently, Dostoevsky faced an acute dispute in literature around Karamzin and Pushkin, who declared Godunov guilty of the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry. Their position was supported in the 1830s by the authors of historical dramas V. T. Narezhny, A. S. Khomyakov, and M. E. Lobanov. The historians M. P. Pogodin, N. S. Artsybashev, and A. A. Kraevsky defended Godunov; their point of view was reflected in the dramas of the same Pogodin and G. F. Rosen. F. V. Bulgarin took an ambivalent position in both journalism and prose. Dostoevsky was undoubtedly familiar with Schiller’s printed sketches for the tragedy “Demetrius,” where the figure of Boris Godunov as psychologically complex and ambiguous. The critics of Pushkin’s Boris Godunov N. I. Nadezhdin, N. A. Polevoy, and V. G. Belinsky played a certain role in shaping Dostoevsky’s idea. In “interacting” with them, Dostoevsky obviously developed a new twist in the dramatic plot, which resolved the historians’ dead-end disputes. In his play, which absorbed the dramatic experience of Shakespeare, Racine, Schiller, as well as the historical legends around Alexander I and Napoleon, a version was proposed about Godunov’s indirect guilt in Dmitry’s death and about the hero’s unwavering moral responsibility even for indirect complicity in a crime. This motif was developed in Dostoevsky’s subsequent works, such as “Netochka Nezvanova” (Efimov), “Demons” (Stavrogin), “Brothers Karamazov” (Ivan). It can be stated with a high degree of confidence that the origin of the concept of expanding guilt and responsibility for it occurred in the very first works of the writer — the tragedies “Mary Stuart” and “Boris Godunov.” The author of the article suggests the formation of Dostoevsky’s aesthetics in the context of the development of Russian historical drama.

Depression and Drama in Augustine of Hippo’s Rhetorical Imaginary

ABSTRACT Studies of Augustine’s rhetoric have been focused on the De doctrina christiana and the Confessions. As a result, these studies have been restricted to questions of Augustine’s reception of Greco-Roman ideas. This article analyzes an underappreciated source, the De catechizandis rudibus, to show that Augustine engaged with a topic that his pagan forebears did not account for, namely rhetorical depression, a condition that tempts speakers to slide into a grim silence. Because rhetorical depression does not admit of a technical solution, Augustine responds to it by locating discourse within a redemptive drama animated by love. The hope of love’s ultimate victory over communicative futility and frustration inspires the depressed speaker to stammer onward rejoicing. Augustine’s placement of rhetoric within a dramatic history can prompt future reflection on the stories and myths found in past handbooks of rhetoric. It may also help us tell stories about rhetoric today that help depressed speakers get up in the morning.

Rewriting history: a conversation between Parham Taghioff and Hamidreza Karami

ABSTRACT This illustrated conversation between Parham Taghioff and Hamidreza Karami focuses on Taghioff’s profound engagement with history and the philosophy of history within his photographic projects. The dialogue explores how Taghioff’s work reveals the common tendency for individuals to unwittingly cast themselves as characters in the historical drama without a conscious understanding of their roles. Key projects, such as the ‘Hands On/Hands Off’ (2014) and the ‘Asymmetrical Authority’ series (2018), are discussed, emphasising the artist’s reliance on personal historical understanding and historical memory. Taghioff highlights the dynamic nature of historical comprehension, stressing that continual emergence of new facts, documents and narratives prevents a definitive understanding of the past. The conversation also touches on Taghioff’s perspective as a contemporary artist in Iran, highlighting the need to examine history to grasp one’s contemporary position. The conversation concludes with insights into Taghioff’s artistic methodology, involving the analysis and use of archival materials, texts and images to reconstruct and critically examine various historical perspectives.

O Teatro se Antecipa: Ludovina Soares da Costa e O Surdo-Mudo ou o Abade de l’Épée

ABSTRACT When Theater is at the Vanguard: Ludovina Soares da Costa and The Deaf and Dumb or the Abbé de l’Épée: an Historical Drama – This article investigates the staging of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly’s play L’Abbé de l’Épée, [The deaf-mute or the Abbot de l’Épée] during Brazil's imperial period. The objective was to analyze how multiple discourses on deafness that circulated in the media, combined with the performance of the Portuguese actress Ludovina Soares da Costa as a deaf-mute young man motivated the founding of Brazil's first institution for the deaf, in Rio de Janeiro. The documentary study surveyed material from the newspaper collection at the Hemeroteca da Biblioteca Nacional, for periodicals from 1810 through 1860, reviewing ads, news and reviews of the performances. The results highlight the transmission of conceptions about deafness in the local society through theater.