Dramatic Style Research Articles

Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship That Helped Forge Two Nations by Tom Chaffin

Reviewed by: Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship That Helped Forge Two Nations by Tom Chaffin John R. Maass Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship That Helped Forge Two Nations. By Tom Chaffin. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2019. Pp. xii, 529. $29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-11372-6.) Author Tom Chaffin provides readers interested in the two great revolutions of the late eighteenth century with a popular history, written in a dramatic style with sections and chapters alternating in focus between Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. Chaffin holds that Lafayette is virtually unknown in America today, and that Lafayette's efforts—along with Jefferson's—during the French Revolution are also largely obscure. "A forthright retelling of their shared story—their solitary, convergent, and divergent paths through two revolutions and their final reunion—is long overdue," Chaffin explains (p. 4). This study is, the author claims, "the first sustained account of the Jefferson-Lafayette friendship and collaboration," but it is "not intended as a joint biography or as a history of the American and French Revolutions. It seeks to capture another quarry: the story of a single, and singularly extraordinary, friendship, and its role in the making of two revolutions—and two nations" (p. 4). Beginning in medias res with Lafayette's first voyage to America in 1777, Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship That Helped Forge Two Nations goes on to describe the lives of the two founders from their childhoods, their early experiences during the American Revolution (both military and political), and their important roles in the French Revolution. Loaded with detail and at times fast-paced, Chaffin's book is not a thesis-driven academic work, nor does he claim it to be. Rather, it is more a chronicle of events, which, unfortunately, gets a lot of the details wrong. Chaffin is correct in pointing out that Lafayette is much less well known in the United States than Jefferson (who was fourteen years the Frenchman's senior), so the trajectory of their lives is quite interesting to compare. Both men were among the elites of their societies, were well educated, and embraced the spirit of the Enlightenment. Each regarded the American Revolution as a salient event in history, in which they played prominent, influential roles. During the French Revolution, Jefferson and Lafayette witnessed and helped shape the tumultuous events that eventually overthrew the monarchy of Louis XVI. Chaffin's chapters on this period are quite detailed, and readers learn about Lafayette's role in the early years of the French Revolution beginning in 1789 and in the Estates-General, the National Assembly, and the National Guard. Jefferson, too, was in Paris as the United States minister to France, and he facilitated Lafayette's political efforts, particularly with Lafayette's interest in a constitution. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of their relationship was a matter on which they disagreed—American slavery. Jefferson's inconsistent views and actions regarding slavery are well known, while Lafayette eventually became an ardent abolitionist. In several sections of his book, Chaffin describes Lafayette's growing opposition to slavery once he reached American shores. Then, "by 1784, having observed slavery longer and more intimately than ever before in his life, Lafayette was rethinking his views on human bondage" [End Page 910] (p. 179). Moreover, he looked into efforts to free American slaves and read more widely among enlightened abolitionist treatises as they became available. Chaffin's book has two main weaknesses. First, he seems to oversell the notion of a unique, extraordinary friendship, and the notion of a brotherhood is simply unsupportable other than in a figurative sense. The first half of his book is not about their relationship at all but is instead the sort of dual biography that the author claims he did not intend to write. In fact, as Chaffin concedes, the pair did not meet until late April 1781, after which Governor Jefferson and General Lafayette worked together until June 2 to defend Virginia from a British invasion. Thereafter they corresponded over the years and met frequently when Jefferson was...

Mass media – risk and protective factor against suicidal behaviour in the COVID-19 pandemic

Suicide prevention is an ongoing concern of public health policies, and a pressing requirement both in regular times, and especially during exceptional social contexts. Suicide prevention becomes a challenge and requires a special focus during the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of overall uncertainty and insecurity, preserving mental health and implementing suicide prevention strategies are valid and confirmed concerns. The role of media in triggering or precipitating suicide risk has been repeatedly outlined. The current article succinctly reviews the protective role of media and the risk factors for suicide which mass media can influence, to the benefit or detriment of persons at risk for suicide. Starting from the most widely known cases of suicide contagion in fiction or printed press, from Goethe to the Vienna case, this article outlines landmarks for mental health promotion and suicide prevention, myths concerning suicide, and the recommendations of World Health Organization for media reporting of suicide. Fact checking, abandoning sensationalistic and dramatic styles of reporting, providing contact information for available help and accurate information for readers are some of the listed recommendations. The current article emphasizes the preventive role of a responsible approach to information and accurate reporting in the media, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Les “apologies” de l’Ordo Missae de la Liturgie Romaine: Sources—Histoire—Théologie by Alain-Pierre Yao

Reviewed by: Les “apologies” de l’Ordo Missae de la Liturgie Romaine: Sources—Histoire—Théologie by Alain-Pierre Yao Uwe Michael Lang Alain-Pierre Yao Les “apologies” de l’Ordo Missae de la Liturgie Romaine: Sources—Histoire—Théologie Ecclesia orans. Studi e Ricerche 3 Naples: Editrice Domenicana Italiana, 2019 393 pages. Hardbound. €45.00. The Frankish adoption and adaptation of the Roman Rite of Mass in the early medieval period included a shift towards a more personal and emotive approach to the liturgy. This is exemplified in the incorporation of specific prayers in the first person singular or plural, to be said in a low voice by the celebrant at different moments of the Mass. These prayers, known as “apologies” (apologiae), express sorrowful recognition of the priest’s (or bishop’s) personal sinfulness as well as joyful trust in God’s mercy and calling to offer the acceptable sacrifice for the salvation of souls. Liturgical scholarship in the first half of the twentieth century tended to see in the dramatic style of these texts an infelicitous departure from the sober character of the Roman Rite. Consequently, the priest’s personal prayers were considerably reduced [End Page 311] in the post-conciliar liturgical reform. This study by Father Alain-Pierre Yao, a priest of the archdiocese of Bouaké (Ivory Coast), based on his doctoral dissertation at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’Anselmo in Rome, shows that we are now in a better position to appreciate the historical development, theological significance and spiritual benefit of these prayers in the Mass. Above all, Yao argues that, despite its general acceptance, the term “apologies” is misleading, because many of these texts do not have the character of confession or self-accusation. This insight provides him with a hermeneutical key to review the historical evidence. The first chapter (33–122) offers a lucid and instructive presentation of the origins and historical development of “apologies.” Of particular interest is the author’s discussion of the Byzantine tradition, where the introduction of the prayer “No one is worthy” (Οὐδεὶς ἄξιος) into the Divine Liturgy may date from the early eighth century. While Yao briefly reviews non-Roman Western traditions, the major part of this chapter is dedicated to the Roman Rite and concludes with the Tridentine missal of 1570. The main sources for “apology” prayers are the collections of the recurring parts of the Eucharistic celebration that developed into a distinct liturgical genre, the Ordo Missae. Although much progress has been made in this field since the seminal contribution of Bonifaas Luykx, still more work remains to be done. In the first place, not all of the known texts are available in a critical edition. Moreover, the prayers of the Ordo Missae are not always organized in a distinct section but may be dispersed throughout a liturgical manuscript. Such prayers can be found not only in sacramentaries or missals, but also in handbooks for priests or collections of prayers (libelli precum). Hence more examples of the Ordo Missae are likely to be discovered and require a revision of Luykx’s widely-accepted typology. In this context, Yao points to the Cluniac Ordo Missae, which is distinguished from other ordines, both diocesan and monastic, by its sobriety and restraint (44). While this book cannot attempt a comprehensive and systematic study of the Ordo Missae, it presents the reader with the current research on this important chapter in liturgical history. Following Adrien Nocent, the inclusion of “apologies” in the celebration of Mass is often seen in connection with the development [End Page 312] of tariff penance. In the Carolingian period, it became possible to commute an imposed penance into a specific number of “penitential” Masses to be offered. The priest was seen to identify with penitents both living and deceased and this would explain the strongly penitential character of his private prayers. Yao, however, argues that “apologies” resulted from an increasing preoccupation with ritual purity. There is certainly evidence in support of this argument, but the difficulty with Yao’s proposal is its reliance on the overstated theory of Arnold Angenendt about the importance of “cultic purity” (kultische Reinheit) in the early Middle Ages. The substantial second chapter...

DramAcum – The New Wave of Romanian contemporary dramaturgy

During the nineties, a new theatrical trend developed. It was called New European Drama or New Writing. It was represented by authors such as the British Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill or the German playwright Marius von Mayernburg. The classical theatre will never be able to return to itself, unless giving the spectator the utopian sense of life that only a staged play could perform, not from a delusive perspective, but from a real and personalized perspective, giving a certain meaning to reality. Being against the conservatory type, the authors put an end to all the theatrical conventions. They considered that it had to come to a point of changing the old patterns, of introducing new themes, new structures, new means of performing in the attempt of seducing and shocking the audience. Most of the dramatic texts focus on the plots about hard human existence such as racism, madness, suicide, sexuality, drug addiction and any type of abuse. The language is vulgar and slangy. All the dramatic texts when performed on stage invade the personal space of the people watching, who is now considered one of the characters. It is not only the dramatic text that is taken into consideration, but the performance itself. The new type of theatre developed in Russia, Poland and Romania, giving specific projects (Teatr.doc, The Drama Laboratory and DramAcum). All were influenced by the verbatim dramatic style performed in theatres under the slogan of the in-yer-face. The study intends to explore the importance of the Romanian theatrical project – DramAcum, as a new type of theatre and dramaturgy.

The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology. Paul Cefalu. Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. viii+352.

<i>The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology</i>. Paul Cefalu. Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. viii+352.

Developing a drama pedagogy for toddler education

This article examines how an educator develops a drama pedagogy through the course of her dramatic interactions with three toddlers. A cultural-historical approach was used to explore the concepts of dramatic interactions and dimensions of drama pedagogy. Visual research methodology involved video observations and a reflective interview with the educator. A case example uses an everyday moment that took place in an Australian childcare centre. This is discussed to show how drama pedagogy unfolds to support toddlers’ learning and development. The case example occurs in a special space known as the neighbourhood space. A drama pedagogy has been conceptualised through three dimensions: a space that has dramatic qualities, interactions and narratives. These foster an inquiry stance in toddlers. It is argued that drama pedagogy is an intentional pedagogical approach to engage toddlers in the neighbourhood space. This article gives focus to an educator who embraces a dramatic conversation style we call dialogue commentary.

Recent Articles

Recent Articles* Paul D. Cannan, Steven Scherwatzk, Ian Sullivan, Steven Scherwatzky, Taylor Corse, J. T. Scanlan, Jacub Lipski, Jack Lynch, Alex Wetmore, Shane Herron, and James Ward BEHN Beebe, Ann. "'I Sent Over These Adventures': Women in The Female American and The Widow Ranter," WS, 45.7 (2016), 624–637. Ms. Beebe's discussion of the similarities between Aphra Behn's The Widow Ranter (pub. 1690) and the anonymous The Female American; or, The Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield (1767) largely serves to establish the growing importance of Behn's play and the continuing interest in finding a proper, literary home for the intriguing Female American. What it does not do is deliver on its promise to demonstrate a "compelling correspondence between Behn's female characters and Unca Eliza Winkfield." More rightly, it demonstrates how acts of thoughtful, detailed comparison between texts can generate correspondence even without evidence of direct lines of influence. Ms. Beebe concedes this latter point right away: "While the author of The Female American may not have read The Widow Ranter specifically, he or she is likely familiar with Restoration drama and Aphra Behn." Yet having acknowledged the greater likelihood of a familiarity with Restoration drama and with Aphra Behn by reputation (largely scandalous by 1767), she still organizes her argument around The Widow Ranter "serv[ing] as an inspiration for The Female American." This claim of direct inspiration rests on thin evidence throughout. A key point of comparison, for instance, is the novel's tragicomic plot and its generic hybridity, two features of Restoration drama in general. Discovering a quest for "voice" and "autonomy" for the female characters is likely enough for any text viewed through a feminist perspective. At the end of Ms. Beebe's argument, crossdressing emerges as a final example of what unites the characterization of these two works' eponymous heroines, The Widow Ranter and Unca Eliza—but crossdressing has long served as one of the most generic of subversive techniques for questioning patriarchal authority. Even Ms. Beebe's more interesting discussion of how each work employs humor to assert "woman's right to make her own financial and matrimonial decisions" suggests more differences than similarities, as Widow Ranter's "bawdy humor" contrasts with Unca Eliza's "sly humor." This essay makes a productive case for [End Page 1] the significance of colonial America as an imaginative context for women-centered narratives during the long eighteenth century. As Ms. Beebe notes, both "the novel and the play reference historical documents from colonial North America in order to authenticate and authorize the distinctly female stories at their centers," and each "imagines a feminist colonial utopia, however briefly, in which a woman's story is valued enough to be returned to England and shared with the public." These works may not share a direct relationship, but considering them together helps us to see how the contested, "unruly" spaces of an imagined new world can result in more fluid, hybrid, femalecentered narratives. ________ Evans, Mel. "Style and Chronology: A Stylometric Investigation of Aphra Behn's Dramatic Style and the Dating of The Young King," Lang&Lit, 27.2 (2018), 103–132. The Young King was staged in 1679 but not printed until early 1683 (entered, Michaelmas 1682). This alone attracts attention since Behn's plays were usually published within six months of production. Adding to the questions is Behn's dedication to Philaster; all of her other dedications were to identifiable persons. Further, Behn signs her dedication to Philaster not with initials or name, but with her spy name, Astrea. Finally, in her dedication, Behn raises still more questions by terming the play a "youthful sally of my Pen, this first Essay of my Infant-Poetry," adding that she waited to bring this play forward because she "feared reproach of being an American." Might The Young King have been written—or at least started—while she was in the New World in the early 1660s? Ms. Evans addresses this and related questions through stylometric analysis. Using databases of frequently used words, most frequent function words, and mid-frequency words (called zeta words), computers develop a signature "fingerprint," which differs from writer...

Style and chronology: A stylometric investigation of Aphra Behn’s dramatic style and the dating of The Young King

Aphra Behn’s dramatic outputs are recognized for their diversity and responsiveness to trends in Restoration drama. A stylometric approach is used to investigate the linguistic dimension of Behn’s dramatic style, with a particular focus on evidence of chronological change. Quantitative analysis (most frequent words, function words, zeta) suggests that Behn’s drama falls into three periods. A qualitative analysis indicates that the periodization may reflect a change in the construction of Behn’s dramatic worlds, from an abstract psychological focus to a more grounded, interactive and social representation. The study considers the problematic dating of Behn’s tragi-comedy The Young King. Although critical opinion holds that this play was the first that Behn wrote (i.e. pre-1670), the stylometric analysis suggests that Behn heavily revised, or, indeed, penned, the drama in the mid-to-late 1670s, mid-way through her writing career. The paper demonstrates the potential for stylochronometric techniques to complement other linguistic approaches to style, and enhance our understanding of how literary writing evolves.

“Something is taking its course”:Endgame’s Frustrated Musicality and the Evolution of Beckett’s Late Dramatic Style

Scholarship of Samuel Beckett’s drama often calls attention to the playwright’s engagement with sound and musicality. Building on this scholarship, this article takes a musically informed sound studies approach to Endgame, examining the acoustic effects of the play’s musical elements. Such an approach both reveals that musicality lies at the heart of Beckett’s famous scepticism of discursive language and challenges existing conceptions of the evolution of Beckett’s dramatic style. Drawing connections between Endgame and Play, the work widely considered to have initiated Beckett’s late style, the article argues that the type of linguistic denaturing associated with that late style is traceable to Endgame’s particular brand of musicality – a musicality “frustrated” by language’s ultimate inability to become instrumental music.

Cartographies of gender in contemporary Greek theatre: A work in progress?

Abstract The article explores some ways in which Greek theatre production during the last 30 years has engaged with gender politics. Most theatre historians and critics agree that the impact of second-wave feminism was rather insubstantial in the context of Greek theatre, and despite the presence of women in fields such as acting, playwriting, set and costume design and directing, there is no trace of a collective effort to develop a tradition of feminist playwriting and theatre practice. Discussing selected works by women playwrights in the light of the reception of feminist thought in Greece from the early years of Metapolitefsi until today, my intention is to trace the different trends of feminist dramaturgies and their genealogies. The first trend refers to plays that expose and discuss issues related with the everyday experience of women and that, in their majority, adopt a realist aesthetic; the second includes women-centred works that adopt a more experimental dramatic style and use intertextuality in order to turn to history, myth or popular legends; and the third refers to the form of the monologue as a distinctive genre carrying a strong feminist dimension.

Ben Jonson's Antagonistic Style, Public Opinion, and Sejanus

This article places Ben Jonson's tragedy Sejanus His Fall (perf. 1603; pub. 1605) within a Catholic intellectual context that influenced the playwright during some of his most creative years, showing that the play's antagonistic style has previously unrecognized points of social and political relevance. Building on recent interest in the early modern public sphere, I argue that Jonson's famously combative style of drama offers a bold and original perspective on the experiences of English Catholics navigating public opinion in a society that could be deeply hostile to them.

Analysis on the relationship between narrative temporality and techniques for dramatic tension in TV drama &lt;Signal&gt;

이 연구는 TV 드라마 <시그널>의 주요 모티브인 과거, 현재, 미래가 상호작용하는 서사적 시간 구성이 극적 긴장을 조성하는 데 어떤 역할을 했는지를 분석한다. 분석을 위한 이론적, 방법론적 도구로 페터 퓌츠(Peter P&#252;tz, 1977)가 제시한 서사물에서의 극적 긴장 조성 기법들을 활용한다. 그리고 서사적 시간성에 대한 오랜 이론적 토대를 제공해온 쥬네트와 채트먼의 논의를 퓌츠와 비교한다. 이 글의 목적은 TV 드라마 <시그널>의 서사형식을 밝히는 것이다. 특히 서사적 시간성을 뒤흔들어서 극적 긴장감을 불러일으키는 서사적 변형을 살펴보는 것이다. 이는 <시그널>의 시간성과 시간을 통한 극적 긴장의 조성 기법이 <시그널>의 극적 완성도를 높이기 위해서 어떻게 활용됐는가를 분석하는 것이다. 이를 통해서 서사적 시간성 문제에 대한 이론적 지평을 확장하는 것이 이 연구의 궁극적 목표라고 할 수 있다. 페터 퓌츠가 제시한 극적 긴장을 조성하는 기법들인 서사적 시간 구성의 다양한 요소들이 <시그널>의 전편에서 복합적으로 활용되고 있었다. ‘연속’과 ‘선취’, ‘역전’이라는 긴장 조성의 기법들은 <시그널>의 과거와 현재 혹은 현재와 미래라는 이중적 서사 속에 자연스럽게 녹아들고 있었다. 이러한 극적 긴장 조성의 기법들은 <시그널>의 모티브인 무전기를 통해서 과거와 현재가 만난다는 서사적 설정에 매우 적합한 재현도구로 쓰였다. <시그널>은 극적 긴장을 조성하는 기법들을 통해서 서사와 시간을 복합적이면서도 체계적으로 구조화하는 데 성공했다. 즉 <시그널>의 대중적 성공과 높은 작품성은 서사적 시간의 구조화와 그에 따른 극적 긴장의 성공적 조성에서 기인한다고 하겠다. 아울러 주요 캐릭터역시 그러한 시간적 구조화에서 극적 긴장 조성의 기법적 역할을 수행했다. 이는 캐릭터 연구에 있어서도 중요한 관심의 대상이 될 수 있을 것으로 보인다. 끝으로 최근 늘고 있는 독특한 시간성 혹은 멀티타임의 시간성을 모티브로 하여 제작되는 영화나 TV 드라마에 대한 연구와 분석에 있어서 극적 긴장을 조성하기 위한 방법을 제안한 퓌츠의 논의는 더욱 더 유용할 것으로 판단된다.This study analyzed how the narrative time or narrative temporality influenced on the construction of dramatic tension in TV drama <Signal>. The narrative theories of Peter P&#252;tz Gerald Genette, and Seymour Chatman are used as text analysis tools. The purpose of this article is to analyze the narrative form and narrative transmission of <Signal> which constructs the dramatic tension. Furthermore, this study tries to explore the usefulness of the work of Peter P&#252;tz cataloging the technique and manner by which the time element interacts to become the major means of producing the inner tension that is the core of dramatic style. This study suggests that the narrative temporality functions very elaboratively to construct the dramatic tension in the <Signal> which is motivated by supernatural situation connecting the past and the present. It also suggests that the narrative theory and methodology of Peter P&#252;tz could be useful to analyze the narrative temporality.

Opera’s ‘Return to Antiquity’: Adaptation, gender and the illusion of authenticity in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide

Abstract During the early modern period in Europe, a revived interest in Greek tragedy exerted a dominating influence over the forms of new dramatic styles. Yet despite this influence, Greek tragedies, whether in Greek or in direct translation, were virtually never performed publicly. Instead, adapted versions of tragic plots made their way onto Europe’s public stages in a variety of forms. This article interrogates this phenomenon as it is manifested in the ‘return to Antiquity’ in eighteenth-century French opera, using Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide as a case study. Comparing this opera’s use of gender norms in the construction of a single character, Clytemnestra, to her gendered portrayal in both the neoclassical and classical source texts upon which Gluck drew, this article examines the ways in which adaptation may be utilized to erase evidence of cultural difference between source and target contexts, creating the illusion that the target society’s norms merely reflect an objective reality rather than a contingent and changeable cultural construct.

Signature pedagogy in theatre arts

Critique in undergraduate theatre programs is at the heart of training actors at all levels. It is accepted as the signature pedagogy and is practiced in multiple ways. This essay defines critique and presents the case for why it is used as the single most important way that performers come to understand the language, values, and discourse of the discipline. In actor training, critique is used in the studio, classroom, and rehearsal hall as the way that students learn to take theory and practical skills and apply them through choices that are clear and justifiable, demonstrating an understanding of text and dramatic style. The focus is on where and how critique is used, who is doing the critique in what setting, and how students learn and grow through this process. This is discussed in relationship to the development of self and community and preparation for the professional world.

The Relationship of Clothing with Personal Identity of Different Clothing Style Personalities among Working Women

This study examined how clothing choices are influenced by personal identity. The purpose of this study was to find out relationship of clothing with personal identity among different clothing style personalities. A convenience sample of 300 employed women from Govt., semi Govt., and private colleges, schools, offices and hospitals was selected for the study. In the first phase, women of six clothing style personalities were selected by a questionnaire based on six different choices of clothes and accessories. In the second phase, they were investigated for finding the relationship between their clothing choices and personal identity. A self constructed questionnaire was used for this purpose. Classic, Dramatic, and Natural Style Personalities scored higher on the scale than Romantic, Ingénue, and Gamin Style Personalities. To test the hypothesis, t-test was used that showed significance between Classic Style, Dramatic Style, and Natural Style Personalities (group-I) and Romantic Style, Ingénue Style and Gamin Style Personalities (group-II). It was found by this study that our clothing choices are directly related to personality traits. The study will help people to get information about clothing concept; how clothing will be related to personality impressions and judgments.

Electrifying Illustrated News: Zheng Zhengqiu and the Transformation of Graphic Arts into Dramatic Cinema, 1910–1935

A pivotal figure in the birth of Chinese cinema, Zheng Zhengqiu (鄭正秋 1889–1935) established an art of dramatic film integral to the creation of early Chinese motion pictures. His style incorporated unique cross-media perspectives, producing theatrical works fundamentally grounded in his experiences in graphic arts (illustrated news) and theater. This article focuses on crucial links between Zheng's films and his work for various illustrated newspapers, as well as between his stage plays and his own experience of family life. The author offers new approaches to and interpretations of Zheng's art, analyzing his emotional modes of narrative and provocative forms of engagement. These artistic traits are rarely discussed in contemporary scholarship on his contributions to Chinese cinema. Emerging during the 1911 Revolution, Zheng's sensational style of drama aimed to foster broad social and cultural reforms. For Zheng, art was never for art's sake alone; instead, art was always in the service of society.

Electrifying Illustrated News: Zheng Zhengqiu and the Transformation of Graphic Arts Into Dramatic Cinema, 1910–1935

A pivotal figure in the birth of Chinese cinema, Zheng Zhengqiu (鄭正秋 1889–1935) established an art of dramatic film integral to the creation of early Chinese motion pictures. His style incorporated unique cross-media perspectives, producing theatrical works fundamentally grounded in his experiences in graphic arts (illustrated news) and theater. This article focuses on crucial links between Zheng’s films and his work for various illustrated newspapers, as well as between his stage plays and his own experience of family life. The author offers new approaches to and interpretations of Zheng’s art, analyzing his emotional modes of narrative and provocative forms of engagement. These artistic traits are rarely discussed in contemporary scholarship on his contributions to Chinese cinema. Emerging during the 1911 Revolution, Zheng’s sensational style of drama aimed to foster broad social and cultural reforms. For Zheng, art was never for art’s sake alone; instead, art was always in the service of society.

Censure and Absolution of Poetry in Plato’s Republic

Several studies have thrown light over Plato’s rejection of poetry in the Republic. At the same time, several scholars remarked the dramatic versatility the dialogues manifest. Along these lines, a source of perplexity became the inconsistency that arises from Plato’s attack to poets and the involvement of poetry in his works. Two of the most important reasons for Plato’s critique are the morally degraded value that poetry instills in audience’s soul and the pleasure the drama affords. However, Plato acknowledges that in order to enact the right values and to develop the best moral attitudes in the city poetry is really effective.After an accurate reform of dramatic style, Plato is forced to recognize the inescapable charme of poetry and admit that the pleasures of poetry cannot be simply dispensed.

Taste, Theatrical Venues, and the Rise of English Tragicomedy

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’s tragicomedies exerted an enormous influence on the Jacobean and Caroline stage. This essay argues that tragicomedy developed as a response to London’s competing theatrical venues, particularly their attempts to acquire prestige. Tragicomedy alluded to a wide variety of different dramatic and literary works, and by combining texts in this way Beaumont and Fletcher could disparage the popular dramatic styles at competing playhouses. This underlying concern also explains the focus on aristocratic identity in the plays. Tragicomedy helped make the Blackfriars a place where audiences could gain cultural knowledge and acquire good taste.

Shaw’s Settings: Gardens and Libraries by Tony Jason Stafford, and: Bernard Shaw and Totalitarianism: Longing for Utopia by Matthew Yde (review)

Tony Jason Stafford. Shaw's Settings: Gardens and Libraries. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2013. Pp. xii + 169. $74.95. Matthew Yde. Bernard Shaw and Totalitarianism: Longing for Utopia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Pp. x + 247. $80.00. Two recent monographs indicate robust ongoing critical conversation around Bernard Shaw's work. The authors are both astute and attentive readers of plays, and both books admirably strive to forge new interpretive directions and shine light on areas that have vexed scholars and theater practitioners alike. Together, they rattle some sacred, garden-variety assumptions about Shaw. Emily Dickinson conceptualized curiosity as the Garden in Brain, a formulation that might have delighted Shaw who, as Tony Jason Stafford details in Shaw's Settings, seems to have had gardens on brain. Stafford's rich study proceeds from assertion that, as unquestionably brilliant as Shaw's dialogue is, his copious paratextual material (verbose prefaces, literary stage direction) is far from irrelevant to theatrical experience of plays and essential not only to understanding their meaning but in revealing Shaw's visual artistry and dramaturgical prowess. In particular, Stafford traces playwright's adept and varied deployment of two recurrent settings, garden and library, through nine major plays that span three decades, to demonstrate how meaningfully Shaw intertwines stage environment with verbal pyrotechnics and discussion-based dramatic style for which he is so well known. Stafford approaches plays as both literary and performance texts and deftly illustrates how Shaw employs these two settings in his campaigns against (among other things) capitalism and romantic idealism, tracking their incarnations from Widowers' Houses to Back to Methuselah. As archetypes, gardens and libraries signify human advancement and achievement while at same time being status symbols, indicating that level of British society that, as Stafford writes, Shaw ironically targeted for his assaults on ... hypocrisy, pretentiousness, hollowness, superficiality, and irrationality (6). While appearance of gardens and libraries approaches a kind of ubiquity in plays, Stafford points out that Shaw never uses them as settings in quite same way twice, thematically or textually. Rather, in a certain sense, pattern is that there is no pattern, or, as GBS proclaimed, the golden rule is that there are no golden rules. Stafford's thesis then is broad, claiming that Shaw chooses gardens and libraries as backdrops neither haphazardly nor frivolously, but deliberately, in order to achieve each play's intended effect and meaning. After a brief introduction, bulk of his study analyzes tropes' varying formulations, assigning each chapter to a specific play and unpacking its unique intratextual configuration. Each begins by establishing a critical context for play being discussed and proceeds to make clear ways in which author's reading builds upon, sometimes diverges from, and even discovers blind spots among other scholarly perspectives. Throughout, Stafford's mining of material is fruitful, from his discovery of fecund semantics of character names (most fascinatingly in Mrs. Warren's Profession) to his interpretive assessment of Shaw's specified contents of Morell's bookshelves in Candida and Roebuck Ramsden's study in Man and Superman. These close readings convincingly emphasize importance of place (including even Shaw's designation of weather) to characterization, conflict, and articulation of each play's political and philosophical points. In Shaw's Settings' final pages, Stafford reiterates generalized convergences in Shaw's varying usages of garden and library within architecture of theatrical text: how they help articulate character and metaphor and serve to create visual and performance effects. …