"For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings": Affect in Shakespearean performance

<p>Because Shakespeare’s plays have been performed consistently for four hundred years, Shakespearean performance is in an ideal position to demonstrate how performance transmits the meanings of texts. This thesis argues that performances of Shakespeare’s plays create meaning through the transmission of affect. Renaissance conventions of audience-actor engagement were based on character tropes and staging practices of medieval theater, to which audiences responded viscerally. To illustrate these responses, I draw upon <em>3 Henry VI</em> and <em>Richard III</em>. I then examine <em>Hamlet</em>, <em>Twelfth Night</em>, and <em>As You Like It</em> for their treatment of representation, empathy, and the power of affect. These plays include latent affective cues; I demonstrate how, instead of attempting to become characters, many contemporary actors examine their lines for affective cues, as actors did in the Renaissance. Establishing performance as a site of varied meaning creates conversation across disciplines that will lead to fruitful adaptations and interpretations of Shakespearean works.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English Language and Literature

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Dieterich, Elizabeth

Contributors dc:contributor

• Craig Dionne, PhD, Chair
• John A. Staunton, PhD

• drama
• king & the playwright
• performance
• European drama
• English Language and Literature

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.emich.edu/theses/584

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.emich.edu:theses-1960