Shakespearean character : language in performance /
Why do we continue to experience many of Shakespeare's dramatic characters as real people with personal histories, individual personalities and psychological depth? What is it that makes Falstaff seem to jump off the page, and what gives Hamlet his complexity? Shakespearean Character: Language...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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London ; New York :
Arden Shakespeare,
2019.
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| Series: | Arden Shakespeare studies in language and digital methodologies.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Why do we continue to experience many of Shakespeare's dramatic characters as real people with personal histories, individual personalities and psychological depth? What is it that makes Falstaff seem to jump off the page, and what gives Hamlet his complexity? Shakespearean Character: Language in Performance examines how the extraordinary lifelikeness of some of Shakespeare's most enigmatic and self-conscious characters is produced through language. Using theories drawn from linguistic pragmatics, this book claims that our impression of characters as real people is an effect arising from characters' pragmatic use of language in combination with the historical and textual meanings that Shakespeare conveys to his audience by dramatic and metadramatic means. Challenging the notion of interiority attributed to Shakespeare's characters by many contemporary critics, theater professionals and audiences, the book demonstrates that dramatic characters possess anteriority which gives us the impression that they exist outside of, and prior to, the play-texts as real people. |
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| Physical Description: | ix, 250 pages ; 21 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781350061385 1350061387 |