Modern Drama Research Articles

Early Modern Aesthetics: Antony and Cleopatra and the Afterlife of Domination

This essay argues that Antony and Cleopatra’s pitting of Egypt against Rome is a cipher of aesthetic resistance to modern rationality. The coordinates are Adornian. Antony’s and Cleopatra’s complex identities elude the disenchanting, nominalist machinery in which diffuse indeterminacy necessitates conceptual imposition. Here, the individuals are essentially dramatized: sensate, embodied selves composed and expressed in relations of passionate recognition. The lovers’ deaths, and especially Cleopatra’s self-conscious theatre, rewrite the ascetic, dominative, and pseudo-theatrical rationality of Octavian Rome. The protest, the passion and singularity, lives mainly through its expressive emphases – such as hyperbole – and the re-functioning of the very dominative roles and norms being opposed. This reflects the restricted but critical – aesthetic – status of early modern drama, and specifies its opposition to the deepening attack on sensate knowing in its world.

Provincial Shakespeare

With reference to aspects of the career of the twentieth-century actor-manager Donald Wolfit and the use of the concept of provincialism in English criticism, this article argues that idealist and universalist values are repeatedly valorised in order to devalue materialist and what might be called ‘provincial’ interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays. I pay attention to conditions of production of early modern drama in the sixteenth century, and to Wolfit’s Second World War performances of Shakespeare, the reception of which is offered as evidence for the persistence of a critical prejudice against what is understood as provincial marginality. The article concludes with a reading of The Merry Wives of Windsor that argues that the play supports the provincial values that have so often been dismissed by critics.

Ezra Horbury. Prodigality in Early Modern Drama

<scp>Ezra Horbury</scp>. <i>Prodigality in Early Modern Drama</i>

Friedrich Nietzsche Explains the Popularity of Our Town

Abstract This article argues that juxtaposing Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy with Thornton Wilder's Our Town reveals the depth of Wilder's artistry. According to Nietzsche's theories, Wilder's emphasis on the play's artificiality invites the audience to participate in its creation. Wilder's use of familiar characters, language, and situations further encourages their involvement. Once he has their attention, he nudges them toward a realization of daily life's often unacknowledged resonance. This sets Wilder's play apart from modern drama's fascination with psychiatric dysfunction, a trend Nietzsche traces to Greek tragedy's corruption by the plays of Euripides. Ironically, Nietzsche and Wilder prefer drama that leaves audiences with an enhanced view of their lives' possibilities by reminding them of death.

Nostalgia in Print and Performance, 1510–1613: Merry Worlds. Harriet Phillips. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. vii+239.

<i>Nostalgia in Print and Performance, 1510–1613: Merry Worlds</i>. Harriet Phillips. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. vii+239.

РОЛЬ ПЛАСТИЧЕСКИХ СИМВОЛОВ В ДРАМАТИЧЕСКОМ СПЕКТАКЛЕ (К ОПЫТУ СРАВНИТЕЛЬНОГО АНАЛИЗА)

In modern drama theater directing, there is a tendency to translate literary or verbal idioms into the language of the stage. In the space of the scene, every day, familiar expressions are recreated in the literal sense, and are read in the figurative sense. Drama theater directors strive to give symbolic meanings to the associative characteristics of certain events and situations. The theater has long used plastic and/or dance in its arsenal of artistic means to symbolize artistic images. Symbolists of stage art affirm the search for inner meanings in expression and attempts to make super reality visible. The desire of dramatic art to form a new stage language, which is based on the reorganization of the action, character, time and space, and the speech component of the play, becomes natural. The appeal of directors to the plastic nature of the actor, as one of the bright means of artistic expression in the structure of a dramatic performance, is supported by the nature of the multi-valued artistic and figurative specificity of the choreographic art’s language, which is a set of visual signs. Such visual and acoustic forms of stage action make it possible to trace the process of transformation of visible objects in the mind of the viewer before their projection into the subconscious. A symbol expressed in plastic language and focused on identifying internal emotional processes that are usually summarized in a dramatic performance by a word can be called the main typological characteristic of the interweaving of plastic and dance in the canvas of stage action. The modern theater considers the role of semantic physical activity, plastics and dance fundamental in the formation of the language of symbols. The authors offer an attempt to comprehend and compare the works of "Othello" by the Lithuanian director E. Nyakroshus and "Block" by the Kazakh director D. Zhumabayeva, where the role of plastic symbols in the formation of a special semantic performance’s structure is revealed through the prism of multi-episode, open play and physical actors action. The expressive symbol’s language of the analyzed performances of each director has its own characteristics and way of expression. The active appeal to the principles of performance organization and plastic symbolization of artistic images remains common for all. The completeness and autonomy of each individual scene together make the multi-episode performance, where there is no causal relationship between such independent acts. Involving the viewer in the situation of an open game used in the works of the mentioned directors allows the viewer to see the material in an unexpected angle, to engage in a situation of meaningful activity, in which the motive is not the result, but the gameplay itself. Specific physical actions of actors aimed at their direct application, without any additional subtext or intent, allow the actor to live these feelings in performances as their own, without any artificial addition. This all shows the similarity of directing techniques of Lithuanian and Kazakh theater figures. Along with acting, metaphors and symbols in plastic embodiment act as a constructive and semantic means in the context of the dramatic canvas. Appealing to the viewer's subconscious through plastic symbols, which play a huge role in creating the performance, contributes to the generation of complex associations, it appeals to the feelings of the viewer.

Big data or not enough? Zeta test reliability and the attribution of Henry VI

Abstract In 2016, the editors of the New Oxford Shakespeare announced that certain Shakespeare plays could be attributed to co-authors, and certain anonymous plays to Shakespeare, on the basis of non-traditional attribution methods known collectively as computational stylistics, or stylometry. This article investigates the efficacy of a key algorithm used to attribute parts of the Henry VI plays to Christopher Marlowe, the Zeta method invented by John Burrows and adapted by Hugh Craig. Zeta, a test widely used in computational stylistics, is described by Gabriel Egan as ‘by some way the most powerful general-purpose authorship tool currently available’. This article offers extensive independent testing of Zeta. Following criticism of the existing method of Zeta analysis, this article introduces a new, statistically sound method for analysing Zeta results. It investigates a claim that the test is 99.9% reliable in differentiating Shakespeare’s style from Marlowe’s. Examining the conditions under which certain authors were ruled in or out of co-authorship of the Henry VI plays, it determines the effect of disparity in data set size on Zeta’s reliability, as well the effect of small data sets. Several test results confirm that Zeta is unduly influenced by genre. The article concludes that in the light of this study, the small canons of most Early Modern dramatists, particularly where they are genre-skewed like Marlowe’s, do not provide enough data for Zeta to be reliable

UMA LOUCURA E DUAS REALIDADES EM JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN, DE HENRIK IBSEN

Henrik Ibsen é o fundador do drama moderno. Conhecido pela escrita de Casa de bonecas – em que impulsiona a liberdade feminina com a personagem principal saindo da casa da família e enfrentando o mundo externo, que não é apresentado ao leitor/espectador – Ibsen dedica-se a apresentar, em John Gabriel Borkman, duas mulheres afundadas em suas realidades particulares, pessoais e imutáveis em torno da loucura fantasiosa do homem que dá título à peça. Este artigo pretende mostrar como, neste drama, diferentemente de Casa de bonecas, a dualidade feminina da realidade depende exclusivamente da loucura masculina assim como as sombras dependem da vela.&#x0D;

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ЭКФРАСИСА В ПЬЕСЕ ВИКТОРА СЛАВКИНА «КАРТИНА»

Taking into account the achievements of modern Intermedia practices, the article analyzes Victor Slavkin’s one-act play «The Picture» (1982) in the context of the interaction of literature and painting. In connection with the recently published diary entries of the writer, the path from the design of the play to publication in the journal «Modern Drama» is traced. The genreforming function of ekphrasis is emphasized. The presence of the landscape on the wall of the room expands the boundaries of a single room, the dialogue of characters in front of the picture reveals the characters in a short time of action. The peculiarities of ekphrasis are manifested in contrasting images (artist Guest and engineer Boss), in the guest’s description of imaginary paintings, coloristic filling, appeal to the trends of Western European art, etc. The symbolic significance of ekphrasis in the dramatic action of Slavkin’s play is emphasized, and the connection between visual imagery and the philosophy of art is examined.

P.P. Pertsov and gazeta «Novoye vremya» (1898–1901) (New aspect of creative biography)

The article examines the early stage of cooperation between the writer and philosopher P.P. Pertsov and the conservative newspaper Novoe Vremya (1868–1917). Fragments of Pertsov's archival correspondence with the philosophical writer V.V. Rozanov, Pertsov's father and the critic of the liberal magazine «Russian wealth» A.G. Gornfeld are partially introduced into scientific circulation. The author analyzes the reasons for Pertsov's difficult attitude to the publisher and editor of Novoye Vremya, the playwright and founder of the Maly theater in St. Petersburg, A.S. Suvorin. The author substantiates the conclusion about Pertsov's fundamental differences related to the position of Novoye Vremya in the case of the French officer A. Dreyfus. An overview of Pertsov's publications in the newspaper related to the beginning of his collaboration with the newspaper is given. The author traces the evolution of the attitude of a young critic, a liberal in the recent past, to the «New time». Russian Russian theater and drama is the first time that Pertsov's correspondence with A. Suvorin is introduced into scientific circulation, filled with reflections on Russian theater and Russian dramaturgy. The letters discuss Pertsov's theatrical articles: «About the new theater» (about the production of a play by the German playwright G. Gauptmana «Lonely») and «a Satire or a drama» (about productions of new plays by A.P. Chekhov). Pertsov and Suvorin discuss performances of the Art public theater (Moscow art theater), which opened in Moscow in 1898. In a polemic with a young critic, Suvorin defended the national theater, represented by plays by Russian playwrights, primarily A.N. Ostrovsky. Pertsov advocated a new theater, focused primarily on the production of plays by modern playwrights regardless of their nationality.

Epik in modern drama (based on the play by Fritz Kater «Time to love time to die»)

Epik in modern drama (based on the play by Fritz Kater «Time to love time to die»)

Learning from the Apocrypha: A Peculiarity of Shakespeare’s Comic Endings

ABSTRACT The 1610 Additions to Mucedorus end the action with the promise of a feast and of revelation to characters in the play of information about it that they currently lack. Such foreshadowing of imagined post-performance dialogue in which members of the dramatis personae are brought to the same level of awareness as the audience about the plot in which they have participated is a feature of almost all Shakespeare’s comedies. It is rare among other early modern playwrights. Bertrand Evans did not mention it in his influential exploration of Shakespeare’s use of “discrepant awareness”. The present paper surveys Shakespeare’s instances of projected offstage narratives in which characters compare their roles in the happy outcome and notes how the phenomenon develops until it gives added resonance to the conclusions of the late romances, such as The Winter’s Tale.

ПУБЛІЦИСТИЧНІ ВИСТУПИ ЮРІЯ КОСАЧА ПРО ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИЙ ТЕАТР НА СТОРІНКАХ ЕМІГРАЦІЙНОЇ ПЕРІОДИКИ

The purpose of the scientific study is a comprehensive analysis of theatrical concept of Yuriy Kosach through the prism of his culturological journalism, which was published in the pages of emigration journals. The study emphasizes that Yuriy Kosach's theatrical publications are a logical continuation of the theatrical critique of the Drahomanov-Kosach family, which formed the spiritual tastes of Ukrainians and generated their socio-political guidelines in light of development of the latest social sentiments in Europe and the world. The article highlights one of the facets of Yuri Kosach's journalistic activity: an attentive literary critic of world drama. Yuri Kosach's journalistic speeches on the peculiarities of the development of European theater, the specifics of the development of a new modern drama, published in the pages of emigration periodicals, are studied. The research focuses on the individual manner of Kosach-critic: the organic combination of scientific analysis and journalistic pathos in the study of significant dramatic phenomena of foreign literature, encyclopedic erudition, the accuracy of theoretical definitions. It is emphasized that the organic combination of journalistic talent and original creative practice in the field of drama made it possible to immerse deeply into the creative laboratory of foreign playwrights, to highlight the best that could contribute to the renewal of the Ukrainian theater. Some components of the theatrical concept of the publicist are clarified; elements of Yuriy Kosach's innovative approaches in covering an important worldview problem are highlighted. The article focuses on the publicist's theoretical reflections on the leading style in European drama of the postwar period and the secrets of the creative laboratory of the leading creators of modern drama in Western Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. The author of the article notes that the literary journalism of Yuri Kosach on the development of world drama is a reflection of his worldview, explains the heterogeneity of its ideological accents. Emphasis is placed on the relevance of the ideological sound of Kosach's journalism for the development of modern literary journalism.

:Tyranny and Usurpation: The New Prince and Lawmaking Violence in Early Modern Drama

:<i>Tyranny and Usurpation: The New Prince and Lawmaking Violence in Early Modern Drama</i>

1950년대 신춘문예 희곡과 현대극의 향방 - 조선일보를 중심으로 -

본고는 1950년대 조선일보 신춘문예를 통해 등단한 희곡 작품을 현대극 의 관점에서 살펴보기 위해 기획되었다. 해방 이전에 중단되었던 신춘문 예는 1950년대 후반에 이르러 재개되었다. 당시는 미국 문화의 영향으로 사회･문화적인 변화가 크게 나타났던 시기이다. 이러한 영향 때문인지 조 선일보 신춘문예를 통해 등장한 희곡 작품들은 여성의 성(性)문제와 근대 가치의 결점 및 부정적 인간성의 문제를 주로 다루고 있었다. 현대극으로서의 가능성은 변화한 세계 인식에 걸맞은 형식적 실험에서 나타난다. 단일하지 않은 플롯의 사용, 상징적인 대사의 처리, 그리고 상 징적인 무대의 활용 등이 이에 속한다. 그러나 이러한 실험성이 신문 독 자에게 완전히 전해졌다고 볼 수는 없다. 이는 텍스트와 함께 실린 삽화 를 통해서 확인할 수 있다. 삽화는 희곡 작품의 형식적 특징을 보여주기 보다는 독자의 이해를 돕거나 관심을 끄는 데 어울리도록 활용되었다.

『무드셀라로 돌아가라』에 나타난 버나드 쇼의 휴먼, 포스트-휴먼

This essay aims at exploring how Bernard Shaw experiments the tradition of modern drama through the concept of human and post-human in cyclical time of Biblical myth in relation to theme of Back to Methuselah. Especially, he intends to seek the way in which human beings could be evolved and saved through the selective breeding of new species represented by long-livers and the destruction of human beings represented by short-livers in the action of Back to Methuselah in terms of the theories of social Darwinism and negative eugenics. Shaw has developed and fulfilled the theories of his contemporaries’ intellectual discourses which are always related to the themes and ideas of playwriting for his dramatic purposes. Accordingly, Back to Methuselah could be regarded as Shavian epic considering the perspective insights of human existence and human condition for the progress of civilization. Even though his evolutionary and philosophical thoughts revealed in the play seem to be radical, his hopeful vision of human future and the improvement of humankind will be continued as far as thought can reach.

The narrative expression of installation art (plastic art) in drama space

ABSTRACT The relevance of the work is justified by the situation when the art of plastics, choreography becomes the mean of expressing the author’s intention. Art of plastic can afford author to express emotions and appeal to the spectator’s emotions through choreography. The purpose of this article is to show abilities of researching the plastic art, as method of demonstration emotions and feelings in a context of dramatic art. At the time of writing this article, the author used such methods as axiological, historical and artistic methods that offer to study and research the plastic art in context of modern drama theatre. To solve the problems discussed in the article, the author also used a comparative and problem-logical methods. While researching this topic was discovered and defined the term plastic art. We described the stages and process of its creation and implementation in theatrical art. It was noted that today in modern ballet art a striking example of a combination of musical plasticity and plasticity of movement is chamber ballet. The practical implementation of the study is possible primarily in the formation of performance programs and staging of choreographic compositions.

The Kinds of Personality Disorders of The Main Character in Inside Out Movie Script

Movie script is a narrative literary wok that has intrinsic elements in it, that the intrinsic elements are theme, setting, point of view, plot, moral value, and last but not least are character and characterization. Movie script that are visualized into movies are categorized as modern dramas. Nowdays, the movie is used as a medium of entertainment and as a medium for delivering messages. This research aims to find two things, that is the personality disorders experienced by the main character in “Inside Out” movie script by Pete Docter. In this research, the researcher uses Sigmun Freud’s psychoanalytic theory (1923), and assisted by other supporting theories. The result of the research found that there were eight types of personality disorders of ten types of personality disorders. This research uses DSM-V (2013) as a reference for discussion of personality disorders.Keywords: Personality Disorder, Main Character, Inside Out Movie, Riley, Author, Dialogue, Narration.

Transcolonial Nationhood

Abstract The genre of modern drama was established in Korea primarily during Japan’s occupation (1910–1945), by playwrights such as Yu Ch’i-jin who sought to represent Korean nationhood on stage. Yu was especially influenced by Irish playwrights, due to the parallels he recognized in the two colonial nations. Moreover, he was also concerned with the genre of modern drama on the global scale, as he agreed with his contemporaries that Korean literature must become interconnected with world literature. As a colonial writer, Yu wrote and staged Korean national drama that was inspired by Irish national drama, which he studied alongside other foreign – mostly European – literary traditions while studying in Japan. Françoise Lionnet’s concept of transcolonialism, a spatial approach to understanding the network of colonial literatures, will be used to analyze the complex set of influences on Yu’s writings.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool: A Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT The dramas of William Shakespeare have been one of the potential sources for adaptation and appropriation. He dramatized basic issues like love, marriage, familial relationships, race, class, humor, betrayal, evil, revenge, murder and death. He crafted unforgettable characters, from lowly thieves to lofty kings, who have become archetypes of modern drama, but still remain people with whom we can relate. These basic concepts and eternal characters provide filmmakers with the finest raw material to create great visual treats. The notable director Vishal Bhardwaj received much critical acclaim for his trilogy, Maqbool inspired by Macbeth, Omkara by Othello, and Haider adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However, Bhardwaj has taken certain liberties to mold the story according to his cinematic demands. The present article analyzes Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool and Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the light of comparative analysis. It begins by defining comparative literature in brief and moves on to discuss the opening scenes, the art of characterization, the different dramatic devices that are being employed, the setting and the ending. It also explores the points of contact and departure between the adaptation (Maqbool) and the original source text (Macbeth).